The Legacy
by poe1911
Summary: Gary Hobson, bar owner meet Ruthie Camden, art student. God help us all. Now I'm done, the story is Complete
1. Heeeeere's Ruthie

A/N This is a crossover between Early Edition and 7th Heaven. Unfortunately none of the main characters belong to me; they belong to a bunch of suits and corporate types that would be on me like white on rice if I tried to make a buck off of this. I do apologize to those who are expecting a lot of action and cool saves, that will come later in the story (at least that's the plan right now). The first few chapters will focus on the people and relationships. I don't think you'll find it boring, just different from the usual Early Edition fics. If you are wondering about the incident that sparked this story, you will find it in chapter 9 of my previous story 'Answers and Questions'. This is my first crossover story ever, so criticism is appreciated. As always, thanks to Cathode, Banadar and Mooselodge for their help and superior Beta reading, I couldn't do it without them. Nor could I do it without you, dear reader, so thank you for giving me a bit of your time. Now, without further adieu, on with the show……

THE LEGACY – PROLOGUE

Ruthie Camden hated summers. Not because of the weather, it was always beautiful in Northern California, but because she was in Northern California. She was getting ready to start her final year of college, and just couldn't seem to escape home. Sure her parents were OK as parents went, and the twins were great, but she just couldn't seem to either find or hold a job that would allow her to live on her own. That was the cruel irony of the whole situation, 'Little Miss Independent' having to spend all of her time away from school with mommy and daddy because she could not afford to be independent. It just galled her. Of course she couldn't say anything, certainly not gripe about it, then whoever she was talking to would tell her what a great family she had and how lucky she was. Fine she was lucky, she just wanted to be lucky and on her own. She smiled to herself, in so many ways she was lucky, it was certainly luck that had led to her choice of colleges. Her Art teacher had entered some of Ruthie's sketches and paintings in an art show in San Francisco, a show for students from Northern California. Ruthie had OK'd it just for laughs; she certainly hadn't planned on having two of her works judged in the top three. Nor had she imagined that these would be sent on to a national competition. There, one of her pieces had made the top ten, but that was all; then the calls started coming; Memphis Institute of Art, Savannah College of Art and Design, Cincinnati, NYU, Syracuse and then one fateful day, The Chicago Art Institute. She had literally dropped all the other mail when she saw the envelope, and after she had opened it, she just stood there screaming. It was so loud that both her mother and Lucy had come running to see what was the matter. The matter was that this insanely good school wanted to offer her a full scholarship for as long as she stayed there. Her whole family, with the exception of Simon, was unanimous in telling her 'No Way'. There was no way that sheltered little Ruthie would be able to handle the brawling hive that was Chicago, not to mention the cut-throat attitude of every wanna-be Picasso at that place. That was how her family always referred to her ideal school 'that place'. Well everyone except Simon, he just kept his mouth shut. Maybe it was because he kept his mouth shut that she actually wanted his opinion. Simon told her he thought it would be tough, and that she would have to get tougher but if she wanted it enough, he believed that she would do great. Simon was just finishing up his MBA her senior year, and when he landed a job in a brokerage house that was based in Chicago and catered to the commodities brokers there, her family caved. She would have gone to Chicago anyway, but it was good to have their support, even if they did irritate her so. At first she thought it was everything her family was afraid of, it was sprawling and gritty and competitive and she hated it. She was doing well in class, but she just wasn't happy. She had formed the opinion that everyone in this city was just a self absorbed jerk, with no more regard for anyone else than the 'man in the moon'. It was a rotten attitude and it had started to color both her thinking and her artwork, at least until April of her freshman year. She had been sketching some statues, mostly just to get away from her creepy classmates, when she was almost killed by a falling statue. She would have been if some guy hadn't come out of nowhere and knocked her out of the way. He had stayed long enough to make sure she was gonna be OK, then just headed on, like it was just another day. It took a while for the realization that she would be dead if it wasn't for this man to sink in, but when it did it forced her to realize just how many people like him there were in the world. What's more, she decided that night, to use him as an example and try being there for other people. From that day, her work flourished, and she made a lot of friends, but she just couldn't find a job; or when she did find one, she couldn't keep it. There was the place that hired her as a waitress, then decided she should wear a uniform that would make a Hooters waitress blush. Places that insisted she work during the day, or until three in the morning, or every day for a month; she had stopped counting the jobs she had lost or quit. So here she was spending her summer in Glen Oak working at the pool hall, paying her parents rent, and wishing she was back in the city she loved.


	2. Welcome to McGinty's

A/N Hobson's Honey, this story is going to start out a little slowly, but if you keep up with it the point will become clear around chapter 6 or so. Till then I'll be defining the characters and their relationships.

THE LEGACY – CHAPTER 1

Ruthie loved Fridays. Not because it was the end of the work week, but because it was 'Free Studio' day. At Chicago, the classes were either Monday/Wednesday or Tuesday/Thursday, always leaving Friday open to work on assignments, projects, or just some free creative time. She was currently working on some paintings that combined oil and airbrush techniques. She wasn't sure if she would get the effect she was looking for, but she was having fun trying. She was standing back and trying to decide if all her effort was doing any good at all, when Teressa popped her head in.

"Hey Camden, I'm headed down to supply, you need anything?"

Teressa was a year behind Ruthie, but despite their many differences the two girls were fast friends. Ruthie had been kind of a mentor to the younger girl, and Teressa had helped Ruth feel more at home in the Windy City.

"Yeah, Cerulean in oil, and a million dollars, I'm pretty close to tapped out already."

"You're kidding, it's not even October yet."

"Don't remind me" Ruthie said with a heavy sigh.

The younger girl left, and Ruthie went back to considering her painting. Maybe if she swept across the grain with a contrasting color she could get the effect she was looking for. She set up the airbrush and hooked it to the condenser and started with light strokes. Periodically she would step back to see if the paint was going on too heavy. Turning off the compressor, she decided to quit while she was ahead. The first thing she heard was her friend's voice.

"Now that is brilliant."

"Yeah right" Ruth replied.

"No, I'm serious; step back here and see how the light catches the hint of contrast."

With a good deal of skepticism, Ruthie stood back and looked at what she had just done. From here the airbrush had produced the exact effect she was looking for. It was subtle, just barely highlighting the texture of the oil paint, but making it stand out vividly.

"You have got that contest so in the bag" Teressa added.

"Not a chance" Ruthie replied, moving to a different angle to check the effect from there.

Teressa just shook her head. Ruthie Camden was clearly the best student at the school; even the students who were jealous as hell would admit that, but she couldn't see it, and what's more she would never believe it. Maybe that's where it comes from Teressa thought; she's holding herself up to such a high standard that she pushes herself a lot harder than the rest of us. Teressa knew that there were probably a lot of unresolved issues in the dark haired girls' life, after all Teressa knew about issues, and maybe that was what was pushing her, forcing Ruth to exceed herself. Teressa just smiled looking at the other girl, help now, analyze later.

"Were you serious about being nearly broke?"

"Yeah, unfortunately; why?"

"Well, I know a place that's hiring."

"Really"

"Yeah, it's a place called McGinty's, kind of a sports bar and grill, it's a pretty cool place, you don't have to dance or go nearly topless and the patron's keep their hands to themselves, well usually."

"What do you mean, usually?"

"The bartender is this ex-cop, and if he sees someone getting out of line, they're gone, and he usually doesn't let em back in."

"Sounds great, what about the hours?"

"It's pretty flexible, they're looking for help with lunch and the early afternoon, since all your classes are over by ten, you should be OK."

"So how do you know about this place?"

"Well, my foster mom is part owner of the place, and I've been working there for the last four years."

Ruthie was a bit surprised at this; the one thing Teressa had never talked about was her family. Ruth had known that the other girl grew up down south, but she never knew how the girl had ended up in Chicago, or where she lived now. "So who should I ask for?"

"Marissa Clark, just tell her I recommended you, and you shouldn't have any trouble." Teressa saw the dark look flitter across Ruthie's face. The California girl was almost too independent for her own good, and the idea of anything that approached charity seemed to put her on edge. "Come on Camden, I know you need help; call it pay-back for helping me get through my first three years here."

"Well it can't hurt to ask."

"Tell ya what" Teressa said "let me put in another half hour on my project and we can go over there together, I wouldn't want you getting lost or anything." Teressa never lost the opportunity to twit her friend about the times that Ruthie had gotten turned around in the city.

Ruthie just blew a very moist raspberry at her friend and turned back to her painting, "just come get me" she called "you know where to I'll be."

Forty five minutes later, the two friends were walking down Illinois towards Franklin. Ruthie loved walking around this part of the city, she loved the buildings towering over her, it was so different then Glen Oak. Teressa was trying to come up with an idea for her semester project. Ruthie was trying to be helpful, but she was nervous about possibly interviewing for a job, she had done nothing to prepare, her clothes were spattered with paint and her hair looked like her scalp had exploded. 'Boy will I make a great first impression' she thought.

"How about doing a mobile" Ruthie asked suddenly.

Teressa jumped, startled that the dark haired girl was even paying attention; "a mobile, no one does those anymore, they're way retro, and I'm supposed to be working in glass."

"So, do a glass mobile, I can bet that no one else will be doing anything like that, it'll be unique."

Teressa started to answer, then her eyes took on a distant look and Ruthie knew that her friend was visualizing her project, and liking what she saw.

They continued on in comfortable silence until they came to an old fire house. The sign over the door said 'McGinty's, but there was no hint of what the interior was like. Swallowing her fear, Ruthie followed her friend through the front door.

The first thing Ruthie noticed was all the wood. Wood paneling, wood floors, the wooden bar, it gave the place a warm, cheery atmosphere. It was also obvious that McGinty's was a sports bar from all of the memorabilia on the walls, posters, jerseys, bats and sticks. Teressa walked right up to the bar, where there was a really cute guy fixing drinks, Ruthie realized he was much too old for her, but looking was still fair game.

"Hey Brent, is she free?"

"Yeah, but she's been fighting with the supplier again, so her mood isn't the greatest; who's your friend?"

"Oh sorry; Ruthie Camden, this is Brent White, the day bartender, Brent this is my friend Camden."

Ruthie walked up and shook the man's hand "nice to meet you" then a light went on in her head "didn't you play Mitch in 'A Streetcar Named Desire' a couple of years ago?"

"Wow, you actually saw that, I didn't think anyone but my relatives saw me in that."

"Yeah, I did; it's one of my favorite plays, the production was kinda awful, but you were really good."

"Thanks, so you just visiting?"

"No" Teressa put in quickly "you were saying we needed some day help, well here she is."

Ruthie was temporarily distracted from the conversation when she noticed a ginger colored tabby weaving its way through the stools around the bar. "Did you know there's a cat in here?"

"Yeah" both Teressa and Brent answered "that's Mr. Hobson's cat, it kinda lives here."

"Cool" was all Ruthie said, because the cat had stopped and she noticed that it had a very mesmerizing gaze.

"Come on" Teressa said, snapping Ruth out of her reverie "let's go get you hired."

Ruthie followed her friend behind the bar, through a half glass door, and into an office.

"Good afternoon Teressa" a voice called out "who have you brought with you?"

"Hi Marissa, this is my friend Ruth Camden, the one I've told you about."

Ruth didn't know what to expect when she turned the corner around the partition, but the elegant black woman was not it.

"Nice to meet you Ms. Clark, Teressa's told me a lot about you." She stuck out her hand, only to realize too late that the older woman couldn't see it, she couldn't see anything. Embarrassed, she stood there, not sure what to do.

Marissa Clark gave the young woman a sweet smile "don't worry about it Ruth, I sometimes don't realize I'm blind either."

"How did you know it was Teressa and that she had someone with her?"

"Her left shoe squeaks, so when I heard that I knew it was her, and I heard two sets of steps, so I knew someone was with her."

With hearing like that and a smart mind behind it, Ruthie resolved to never even try to lie to this woman; she figured it would be a futile effort.

Marissa turned to Teressa, "so you think she could cut it during the lunch rush?"

"No doubt, so long as she doesn't have to wear spandex."

Marissa turned to face Ruthie, the question obvious on her face "spandex"?

"A place I worked at before decided that the waitresses should wear spandex cat suits, only; I said no."

"Well around here it's button downs and dockers, we supply the ties and aprons, and you can start Monday."

"That's it, you mean I'm hired."

"Unless you want to draw it out, yes."

"No, no, this is great; what do I need to fill out?"

"These two here and this one" the blind woman said, handing Ruthie the proper forms. "Fill them out and get them to me or Abby on Monday and you'll be all set. You won't have much in the way of time off, at least not at first, and just be sure to call if you can't make it in." Turning to Teressa she said "now I need to get back to this mountain of paper, so if you could show our newest employee around, I'd be most appreciative."

"No problem, come on Camden, let's meet the whole gang."

Ruthie turned as she was leaving the office "thank you Ms. Clark, I won't let you down."

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Gary had been running all day, he hated days like this where it seemed like it was a dead sprint from one disaster to the next. His only consolation was that no one was killed and that he hadn't ended up in the hospital.

The first thing he noticed was Teressa and Robin talking to a girl he didn't know. "Who's your friend Teressa?"

"This is my friend Ruth Camden from school, I've told you about her before, anyway; Marissa hired her as a lunch waitress. Camden, this is Gary Hobson, the other owner."

As they greeted one another, each had the oddest feeling that they had met before, but neither could place the face or name.

"So, you from around here Ruth?"

"Nope, Glen Oak California, and before you ask, I pull for both the Giants and the Niners."

Gary gave a little laugh "I guess my reputation precedes me. Well, we'll try to cure you of those illnesses; just don't be too loud about your loyalties."

"You complain a lot Gary, but you don't get on Toni for pulling for the Pistons and the Lions" Robin said with a laugh.

"True, but Toni might shoot me if I complain about that. And at least she doesn't like the Red Wings. It's one of those little compromises you have to make."

Gary headed on to the stairs to the loft. Robin called out "do you want something sent up?"

"Yeah, the usual Robin Thanks. Oh and Ruth, welcome to McGinty's."

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"So that's my boss" Ruthie asked.

"That's him" Teressa assured her "he's great, you won't regret working here."

"I believe that already." Looking at both Robin and her friend she said "you guys have been great, but I still owe my painting another two hours of work, not to mention I need to both eat and sleep in the not so distant future; so I need to motor."

Teressa walked her to the door as Robin went back to managing the floor "you OK getting back to school?"

"Fine" Ruthie said "thanks".

"I'm glad you're working here Camden, and I'm glad you loosened up enough to let someone help you for a change."

"I'm glad too" Ruthie said, hugging her friend and then heading back to school. Now all she had to do was tell her family; that would be quite an adventure.


	3. The Information Station

A/N Kayla – you're absolutely correct about the prologue, that was simply poor editing on my part, I apologize if it caused problems. Yes I do know about the crossover category, but the story just seemed to fit here.

To all – I've been reading some stories by Helen Pattskyn that are what you would imagine the ultimate crossovers to be like. She has characters from at least four different series and some movies and even video games in her stories. If you like crossovers I highly recommend this author. POE1911

THE LEGACY – CHAPTER 2

Inspiration had struck while she was painting and two hours turned into six. Even so, when she got back to her dorm, Ruthie couldn't sleep. There was something about Gary Hobson that was tickling her brain. She knew that she had met him before, but she couldn't remember where or when. Even when she put the thought of the enigmatic (but handsome) Mr. Hobson to the side, sleep still eluded her. It just went against her grain to accept help from other people, even her friends. Teressa was right, Ruthie knew this; but lying in bed at night, it didn't help her ego that she had needed someone else to bail her out of her trouble. Maybe it was simply growing up in the Camden house you were much more used to helping out than needing help. She allowed this line of thinking to percolate in her brain for a bit. Maybe that's why the Camden kids seemed to have so much trouble dealing with adversity, because that's when you needed to rely on friends, and they (as a group) were too used to being the ones that others relied on. I guess we're just wired different Ruthie concluded. And with that final thought, she finally went to sleep.

Saturday was laundry day, but this Saturday was also the day she was going to have to tell her parents that she had another job, and then wait for them to break out the smelling salts when she told them where it was. She had a few pairs of khaki's at school, but she had a lot more at home, and she was gonna need them, which meant she was gonna have to explain why she needed them, which meant that she was gonna have to tell her very over-protective parents that she was working in a bar. Which meant that they would immediately be on the phone to Simon, asking (no, telling) him to check the place out. She thought to herself that maybe she could have some fun with this. While her clothes were drying she worked out the tack she would take with her mom and dad.

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Gary Hobson was enjoying some quiet time for a change. Toni was sleeping in and there was only one save in the paper today, and that wasn't until 6:30 tonight. He looked at the young girl sitting just a bit down the bar. There was no way you would recognize Teressa Walters as the same person that had been running from her father four years ago. She was happy and vivacious, and simply a joy to be around. She hadn't always been like this of course, but Marissa had giventhe girlthe first stable environment that she had known in a long time. Gary knew that the girl felt guilty at times, especially when Emmet had taken that job in Atlanta, and Marissa had decided to stay. He knew that she blamed herself for Marissa being un-happy, and had even tried to leave at one point. Fortunately Toni could tell what had been going through the younger girl's mind and had headed the attempt off before it had ever gotten started. Gary wasn't sure if Marissa knew about this, he just knew that he hadn't told her.

"So what's the story on this friend of yours" he asked.

"You mean Camden; she's a fifth year at school. We've known each other since my first day, I got lost and she helped me out. She's kinda weird though, she's always helping everyone else out, but hates it when anyone helps her, and she's so independent that she makes Crumb look clingy."

"Hmph" was all Gary did, trying to picture anyone that independent. "Has she ever been by here before?"

"Not with me, but I wouldn't be surprised if you've seen her."

"Why's that?"

"Well, you're always reading the paper, I've lost count of how many awards and stuff she's gotten, and they're always printed up in there, heck she was even written up in Time Magazine when they did a piece on new artists."

"Maybe that's it" Gary said "there's something about her that makes me think I've seen her before. Maybe she was here with a boyfriend or something."

Now Teressa laughed "a boyfriend, Ruth Camden; the girl's practically a nun. You may not fully get this Gary, but I'm good at art, I love it; Ruth lives for it, it's as necessary to her as breathing. I could live without art, she couldn't, and that kind of attitude doesn't leave much time for anything else. Other than me I don't know if she has a friend in the world, I mean there's lots of people that like her, but aside from me I really don't think she has any true friends."

Gary looked down at the paper in front of him, the description Teressa had just given certainly did remind him of someone, two some ones to be precise. He looked back at the people that he and Toni had been before they had gotten together; living for the job. Maybe he was just recognizing a kindred spirit. And maybe Marissa could tell him some more. He found her just sipping coffee in the office and listening to some jazz on the radio.

"Hi Gary, slow day today?"

"Yeah Marissa, what can you tell me about our new waitress?"

"Not much, she took all the forms with her to fill out. She put her cup down and thought for a moment; most of what I know is from what Teressa has told me. She's from California, the Bay area, she has a bunch of brothers and sisters, her dad is a minister and her mom just went back to work as a teacher. Teressa thinks the world of her; Ruth's helped her out a bunch of times."

"Have you ever seen her or talked to her before yesterday?"

Marissa thought long and hard "no, I never have. Why the questions?"

"I can't shake the feeling we've met before, but I just can't place her."

"Maybe you should talk to Meredith, see if she can find out anything."

"Good idea Marissa, I'll try that."

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"Hi mom, how's everything at home?"

"We're all fine, I'm getting used to being in a classroom again and your dad's grumbling about passing the job on to Chandler again, but I don't think he will. How are you doing?"

"You know me; painting whenever I'm not in class, well at least until Monday."

"What happens Monday" Annie asked with some alarm.

"I start a new job."

"Doing what?"

"Just waitressing, that reminds me, could you send those slacks in my closet to me, I've got a couple of serviceable pairs here, but I'm gonna need more."

"Sure sweetie, that shouldn't be a problem; so where are you working at?"

"This bar called McGinty's."

"WHAT, you're working at a bar?"

"Yes mom, I'm working at a bar."

"What kind of bar?"

"The kind where they serve alcohol and appetizers and watch football, just a bar."

"You don't have to wear anything suggestive do you?"

"They didn't ask, do you think I should volunteer to? Maybe I'll get better tips; good idea mom."

Annie just held out the phone to her husband, Ruthie was working in a bar and she just couldn't cope right now.

Once he had been filled in on this new development he asked "so how'd you find this place Ruthie?"

"Teressa, my friend from school, her foster mom is part owner of the place."

"Does it seem like a nice place?"

"Sure dad, but of course they don't bring the strippers out till after dark."

"Cool" said a voice on the other line "Ruthie's gonna be a stripper."

Eric Camden stood there and listened to his youngest daughter laughing at the other end of the line. He was having quite a struggle between laughing out loud at the way his daughter was jerking his chain, and being angry at the twins for eavesdropping. "Well as long as you wear clean underwear" he jabbed back "otherwise your tips might be a little light". He heard silence from Ruthie for a second, then she dissolved into nearly hysterical laughter. It was good to know he could still surprise his kids once in a while.

When she finally got herself under control she told her dad "when you send Simon out to check on me, tell him to dress a little down, this really isn't the kind of place commodity brokers hang out."

"I hear you Ruthie" Eric said "and we'll get those clothes in the mail later today, you should have them by Wednesday."

"Thanks dad; Oh, and tell mom I'm sorry for yanking her chain so hard, I just couldn't help myself."

"Sure Ruth, be careful, and I love you."

"I love you too dad, and mom and the twins. Bye"

Eric just looked at the phone in his hand. Ruthie was offering them the chance to have Simon check the place out; she'd be disappointed if they didn't have him do it. That and Annie would insist he did, because when she heard bar, she thought biker bar, or worse. Well, no time like the present he thought, and dialed the phone.

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"Carson"

"Meredith, its Gary."

"Hey Hobson, what can I do for you?"

"Could you run a search on someone for me?"

"No problem, what's the name?"

"Ruth Camden, she's an art student here."

"OK, now what's going on?"

"She's the new day waitress, I get the feeling we've met but I just can't pin down where or how, I was hoping that maybe something that actually got published would put me in the right direction."

"Got it. Christ there's fifty one articles here; you want the highlights or the whole things."

"Everything you've got, anything might give me a clue."

"Whatever, you want me to run that by or can you pick it up?"

"I don't have anything until six thirty this evening, so I can be by there in about thirty minutes if that's OK."

"Sure, anything interesting" she asked, meaning the save.

"Yeah, a pretty spectacular one. The old McCormick warehouse is gonna burn down and about ten homeless people staying there are gonna die."

"Any way you can stop the fire?"

"I hope so, but there's no mention about how it starts, so not much I can do. I'll try, but when that's the case it usually means the building's gonna go, and I should just focus on the people."

"I hear ya, well this stuff is now waiting on my desk, so if I'm not here, help yourself. And be careful tonight, I don't want to be writing your damn obit."

"I will be, thanks Meredith."

She hung up the phone and thought a minute; then leaned out her office and yelled "Aguilera".

Janet Aguilera had graduated with a degree in journalism from some redneck school in the south, but she was a top flight reporter. Sometimes her writing wasn't as polished as the big wigs wanted, but everything she did was solid. Her parents had been migrant workers, now they owned their own place somewhere in Alabama, so the kid wasn't afraid to work hard.

A Latino girl stuck her head in Meredith's office. "You bellowed Jefe?" (Jefe is Spanish for boss)

"Yeah kiddo, how's the story on towns poaching water from the Great Lakes coming?"

"Ready to publish in two days; I'm just pressing the collars and cuffs."

"I'm looking forward to seeing it in print. What do you know about the old McCormick warehouse?"

The girl frowned for a second "that's that place on the Chicago river that someone wants to turn into another 'Water Tower Place' isn't it?"

"That's the place; check into it and see who would get rich if it didn't happen."

"Has something happened?"

"No, but ya gotta learn to anticipate in this game, a big project, a lot of green being flashed; someone's gotta be pissed about it, see who is and how pissed they are. Then if something does happen, you're ahead of the game, not playing catch-up ball."

"Thanks Jefe, I'll get on it" and with that, the younger girl headed back to her desk. She had learned more in two weeks from Meredith Carson than she had in four years of college. She wondered where the hell her boss got her instincts from, and wished it was something else she could learn. She sat down and called up everything they had on the warehouse and got to work.

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Outside the McCormick warehouse at 6:15 in the evening, a very heated discussion was going on. "If you think you're going in there alone, you've been breathing too much smoke mister."

"Toni, we've been over this, ten people are gonna be trapped in the basement, I've got to go get them moving, and you've got to find a way out of there. We've got to split up."

Toni Brigatti just stood there and ground her teeth for a second. In the three years she had been married to Gary, she had picked up on the look he got when he wasn't going to budge on an issue. Unfortunately it tended to coincide with the times he was forced to do really dangerous rescues, like charging into burning buildings and such. "Fine, but take my badge and wave it around, if they think you're the police they'll move faster, and won't argue as much."

"Good idea dear, I knew there was a reason I love you so much" he said as he kissed her.

"Just watch yourself and come out in one piece, promise me now."

"I promise" he said, and went to roust the basement tenants.

She was searching for an exit from the basement when she heard something hit a door near her. It was something or someone pushing from the inside. She watched from the behind a dumpster as a non-descript middle aged man forced a door open, then closed it and started to chain it shut.

Knowing that she had seen enough, she drew her gun and yelled "freeze" from cover.

The man jerked around like the devil himself had just tapped him on the shoulder. Fortunately for him, he was unarmed or Brigatti would have dropped him on the spot.

Hurrying forward, she snapped the cuffs on and secured him to a nearby hand rail. Then she went back to the door so she could open it. 'Damn, the little weasel snapped the lock shut before I stopped him'. She turned to the guy who looked like a shoe salesman and asked "where's the key"?

Giving her a sneer of contempt he said "you're a detective, go detect one".

She realized that beating this guy to a pulp and then searching him for a key would be rewarding but would take too much time; she could already smell smoke. She turned back and pulled the door open as much as she could and yelled "get back from the door". Then stepping back and aiming her gun, she squeezed off about five rounds, trying to break either the chain or the lock. It was tricky business in the low light. She darted forward and pulled on the chain, it came apart and the door opened. Right behind it was a roiling mass of smoke, and the first of Gary's rescues. Eventually all ten were out, and now she was just waiting for Gary. Taking a deep breath she yelled "that's ten Hobson, now get out of there".

Hearing this, Gary didn't hesitate and sprinted for the door that Toni had opened.

Bent double and coughing he looked at the guy that had started the whole thing, "is this the guy" he asked his wife.

"Yeah, my guess is he's a pro."

"So he probably won't talk"

"Not likely, unless you've got a way to persuade him."

Gary gave a wicked grin and turned to the ten people that were now even more homeless. "Hey guys, it looks like we caught the guy that burned you all out."

There was a low muttering, almost a growl from the ten people now looking at the shoe salesman.

Gary turned to him "how about you tell us who hired you, or I just stand back and let these folks register their complaints with the way you do business."

The man gave a startled look from Gary to Toni to the ten homeless people "you're cops, you can't do that."

"I'm not a cop, did anyone ever identify themselves as a police officer, have you been read your rights? I don't think so, so we can pretty much play this as hard as we want. And right now I want a name or these ten people tear you to pieces while I watch."

Toni gave her husband an admiring look, she knew he would never allow anything like that to happen, but he came across as totally sincere. What's more, the weasel believed him; hell, if she didn't know him, she would have believed him.

The arsonist, his eyes wild, kept looking from Gary to the people, flickering, looking for some sign of mercy, and not finding it. Finally he broke, and started giving up not only the guy who hired him for this job, but every job he had ever done, once he started, he just wouldn't shut up. Eventually the guy just dissolved into sobs, Toni stopped taking notes and Gary dispersed the homeless people, telling them about a shelter near-by, a shelter that was holding cots for them thanks to a previous phone call.

Toni had recuffed the guy and was leading him around to where she knew the black and whites would be. Just as she rounded a corner, there was a flash, and she was momentarily blinded. "Great picture Detective" she heard, "you looked like a deer in the headlights".

"Dammit Diaz, one of these days I'm gonna plug you and make it look like an accident" she grumped, and kept moving toward the front of the building.

"No you won't, cause I make you look good Detective" the photographer answered as he sauntered away. He wondered how Aguilera had known something was gonna happen. She had asked him to get a couple of pictures of the warehouse on his way home, no rush, and now he found himself on the scene of a four alarm blaze. The kid definitely had instincts.

He headed back to the _Sun-Times_ to develop these in time for the morning paper. The next day, the picture he had just taken would be on the front page, along with the headline 'Hero Cop Saves Ten and Nabs Arsonist' and that wasn't too shabby.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Two people are wandering down the moonlit streets of Chicago.

"Well you had me convinced."

"Just good acting."

"I'll say; I could use a bit of that for interrogation."

"Well, we're doing 'Taming of the Shrew' this year, why don't you come out?"

"Acting, me, I don't think so."

"Why not, you've done undercover work, that's acting."

"Yeah, but this is in public."

"Come on, you'd be perfect for Katarina."

"Who the hell's that?"

"A character in the play, she's this hard headed girl that doesn't take any crap off of anyone, much like an Italian detective I could name. Besides Crumb would be your father."

"Crumb's in this?"

"Just like every year."

"I'll think about it."

"Thanks Toni"

"You're pushing it Hobson."


	4. Gifts

THE LEGACY – CHAPTER 3

On Monday, Ruthie went straight from her last class to McGinty's. She had gotten a lot of strange looks that day. The girl who was rarely seen in anything other than paint spattered jeans and a T shirt was actually wearing khaki's and a button down. What's more, her hair was actually under a semblance of control and she was wearing make-up. Most speculated that either she had an interview or someone had died; the majority leaned towards the latter because they figured she would still wear jeans and a T shirt to an interview. When she got there she greeted Robin and Brent, and headed back to drop her paperwork off with Ms. Clark, she also checked the small package in her coat.

"Hello Ruth" she heard just as she came through the door.

"How do you do that" she asked the blind woman, with wonder in her voice.

"You have a very distinct and determined walk, plus I heard Brent call your name."

Ruthie stepped further into the office and placed her paperwork on the desk. "Here's everything" she said. "Oh, and I have a surprise for you."

"Really, what is it?"

"A painting that I did."

"Well, I'm flattered, but that's probably not the best present for someone like me."

"Wait until you see it" Ruthie said with a grin in her voice. "Teressa told me that you weren't born blind, but that you lost your sight at a young age, is that right."

"Yes, I was about four."

"So you at least know colors"

"True"

"Then here" Ruthie said, and placed the painting in the blind woman's hands "tell me what you see".

"But I can't see."

"Use your fingers, feel the paint."

"Alright, well this part is very smooth, but there are little points scattered here and there." She ran her hands over more of the painting. "Now there's something down here, it feels round, and different from the smooth area."

"The smooth area is black, and the points are white, what's the texture of the round object?"

"It's swirled, counterclockwise."

"Counterclockwise swirls are blue, and the most intense blue is where the pattern is most distinct, as the pattern fades the color fades."

Marissa now understood what the young girl had done; she had created a painting that Marissa could see with her hands. "Here's a diagonal slanted left."

"That's Red"

"And the clockwise swirls?"

"Yellow"

As Marissa encountered a new texture, she found out what color corresponded to it. Soon she was able to see the painting in her mind, it was a series of overlapping spheres on a black background with white dots scattered in the black. She could only remember a few gifts that had been more thoughtful. "Ruth, I'm honored, but I haven't done anything to deserve this."

"Sure you have, you're taking a chance on me, that kind of generosity deserves a reward."

"Thank you" Marissa said; she could feel the tears threatening to break out.

"You're welcome Ms. Clark" Ruthie answered. "Does Robin have the ties and aprons?"

"Yes, and Ruth" the younger woman looked up "call me Marissa please",

"I will Marissa." As Ruthie turned to go, she saw a pile of printouts on the other desk in the office. She was surprised to note that she was the subject of the one's that she could see. 'Maybe they're not taking that big a gamble if they're checking up on me' she thought as she looked for Robin.

Her shift went well, for a first day, and Brent and Robin were fun to work with. She wasn't as sure about Steve and Lily, but she could work with them. George in the kitchen reminded her a lot of her grandfather the Colonel, and she was immediately comfortable around him. And right on cue, Simon showed up at about 12:45.

He came in and stood for a moment in the entrance just looking around. 'Maybe he's looking for the strippers or poles for dancing on the bar' Ruthie thought. She walked up to him "can I help you sir?"

"I'm just here for lunch."

"Would you prefer to sit at the bar, or a booth or a table?"

"The bar's fine."

She sat her brother down, showed him the menu and ran through the specials "would you care for anything to drink?"

"What's on tap?"

"We have the usuals, but I would personally recommend the Bells'. It's a microbrew from Kalamazoo Michigan; a good and unique flavor."

Simon looked at his sister, scandalized for a moment at the thought of her drinking beer, but wisely didn't say anything as he saw her glaring right back at him.

"OK, I'll try a Bells' and a grinder" he said, handing the menu back to her.

He enjoyed his lunch, and really liked the place, even if it was different from his usual haunts. As he was leaving, he caught Ruthie's eye and lingered by the door. "Could I meet you back here tonight?"

Ruthie thought for a moment, tonight was pretty free and the place would be crowded because of Monday Night Football. "Sure, about eight."

"Sounds good" Simon said "and take care of yourself" he added as he walked out the door.

The only disappointment that Ruthie had that first shift was that she never saw her other boss. She asked Robin where he was.

"Mr. Hobson just comes and goes. Some days he's here all day, others he's never here, and then sometimes he's in and out. It's weird, but you get used to it."

"What's he doing?"

"Errands are what he always says; but I don't know, that's an awful lot of errands, even for running a place like this."

"Yeah, it is. So, how'd I do, and any suggestions for tomorrow?"

"You did fine, a good, professional appearance and you are up on the menu, you could work on being a bit warmer with the customers; you tend to come across as a little severe, but nothing major."

Ruthie smiled to herself; her first day had gone well. She was hanging her tie and apron up in the broom closet that was labeled the break room, when Brent called her over.

"What was up with the blond guy? I thought you were gonna kill him the way you were looking at him."

"That was my brother, Simon. My folks sent him to check out the place and make sure it wasn't too disreputable for their baby girl."

Brent laughed "no matter how old you are, you'll always be their baby, and they'll always try and treat you that way."

"Speaking from experience" Ruthie asked.

"I wish I wasn't, but yeah" the bartender answered.

He started to say something more, but was called away to fill and order. As she was headed out the door, he called, "see you tomorrow RC".

She waved back, a little bewildered, RC who the heck was that. Then she realized, those were her initials, no one had ever called her that before, so it took her by surprise. Wow, a nickname from someone other than family, that was neat.

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Gary had been running all morning and into the afternoon, but now he was done for the day. He still couldn't believe that those kids were going to try tight rope walking on that live power line. What kind of parent allowed that? And he was glad that Toni had been able to stop that robbery without any trouble. He always worried about having her help on saves, it just came down to the fact that he couldn't function without her in his life anymore. But she wasn't about to let him do it on his own, and he didn't want to tempt her anger if she found out he'd done something like that. Brent was looking happy, and things seemed to be running well when he went back to see Marissa. "So how was our new waitress first day?"

"Robin said that she did fine, a little stiff, but that'll come. How was your day?"

"No one hurt no one in the hospital, no one dead; I'm batting a thousand. Hey, what's that on your desk?"

Marissa turned the painting around so Gary could see it "a gift from our new waitress."

"A painting, for you; that seems a little tactless."

"That's what I thought at first, but close your eyes."

Gary did so and Marissa had him touch the painting. "There are different patterns here."

"Exactly, each color has its own pattern, so I can picture it in my mind. And something else, see those dots?"

"Yeah, like stars in the sky."

"Yeah, but if you turn it on its side, those stars become a message in Braille."

"Neat, what does it say?"

"Marissa's Pocket Universe, from RC. So what did Meredith find out about our Miss Camden?"

"Well, according to these articles, all fifty one of them, Ruth Camden is arguably the best artist under 30 in the United States; certainly she's considered one of the five best. She already has two pieces in the National Gallery and one in the Guggenheim. Some of the bolder critics mention her in the same sentence as Wyeth, Wood, Hopper and Rockwell."

Marissa just sat there with her jaw hanging open. "Yeah, that was pretty much my reaction" Gary said.

"What's she doing waiting tables?"

"Apparently she has never sold anything; those pieces on public display were given away. One collector offered her five hundred grand for one painting, and she said no."

"Why?"

"You'd probably have to ask her. Or maybe ask Teressa, she might be able to put you in the right direction."

"I just might" Marissa said "I just might."

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McGinty's was a lot different at night than in the afternoon. Ruthie was different too, back to looking a bit more usual; paint spattered jeans and an old 'Black Flag' shirt. She walked in and was surprised by the crowd; apparently this was the place to be in Chicago on a Monday night. She made her way to the bar, and saw Brent.

"Hey RC" he called "what brings you by?"

"Looking for my brother, he's supposed to meet me here."

Brent waved to the far corner "back by the juke, at a table."

"Thanks Brent" she yelled, but he stopped her before she could turn away.

"This is Crumb, the night bartender" he said, introducing an older man.

"Nice to meet you Ruth, just let me know if some hairball's hasslin' ya, I like to keep those guys in line."

"Will do" she said, "and thanks."

Ruthie made her way back to where Brent had said her brother was; then she saw him, looking kind of broody and put out. "What's the matter with you" she asked.

"All the noise and everything, it's hard to talk, let alone think."

"Maybe, but its fun."

"I'm just used to places that are a bit calmer, that's all."

"This place usually is, or so I'm told. I haven't been here enough to get everything straight."

"Do you like it?"

"Yeah, I do; there are some good people here."

"Hey RC, trying the nightlife" Teressa asked.

"No Teressa, this is my brother Simon. Simon, this is Teressa, my best friend and the person that got me this job."

"Yeah, well I owed you a few dozen from all the times you've bailed my tail out, can I get ya anything?"

"Yeah" Ruthie answered, before Simon had a chance to speak "a couple of Leinenkugle's, the dark ones."

Teressa just shook her head "it's your guts, not mine" and went to get the order.

"So you drink now?"

"Simon, I've been drinking beer since I got here, that's what college kids do. And this is Chicago, you can't eat here without drinking beer."

"So any other surprises, tattoo's, piercing's, boyfriends?"

"None of the above, I limit myself to one vice at a time thanks, what about you?"

"Just the earrings and I prefer the Leinenkugel red to the dark, for future reference."

Ruthie just paused for a second, and then laughing, hugged her brother. She had forgotten how much she missed talking to him.

Just then the beers showed up, but it wasn't Teressa that brought them. Ruthie looked up in surprise "Mr. Hobson, you didn't have to do that."

She took the beers from her boss and introduced him to Simon. "I was looking for you earlier, to thank you for taking a chance by hiring me, I appreciate it."

"That wasn't much of a risk from what Marissa and Robin tell me. They say you've got real potential."

"Thanks, they're easy to work with, and this place has great atmosphere."

"Well the atmosphere is a product of the people that are here, you have good people, you get good atmosphere. And you're good people Ruth, I wanted to thank you for what you did for Marissa, I haven't seen her this happy in years; at least not since Emmet went to Atlanta. Anyway, these are for you" he handed her an envelope and blended back into the crowd.

She opened the envelope and pulled out two tickets, they were for the Bears, Niners game at Soldier Field in three weeks, on the fifty yard line.

Simon gave a drawn out whistle "I'd say your boss likes you."

Ruthie cast one more look at the enigmatic Mr. Hobson "I'd say he does" she agreed and then turned back to her brother. "So what have you been up to the last four years, tell me everything."

Several hours and several beers later, she headed back to her dorm. She felt she had really re-connected with Simon, and it felt good. It felt as though she had been missing something so fundamental that she didn't even realize it was gone. Well whatever it was, it felt good to have it back; in fact it gave her an idea. And with a smile she headed to her studio, not her dorm.


	5. Who You Are

THE LEGACY – CHAPTER 4

It was another week before she saw the very busy Mr. Hobson again. She had been trying to catch him to tell him 'thank you' for the tickets, but he just hadn't been around. But she walked in on Monday, and there he was. "How's it going RC" he asked.

The nickname that Brent had bestowed on her had grown until only Marissa called her Ruth. Even Teressa, who had always called her 'Camden', used 'RC' on occasion. Ruthie didn't mind at all, in fact she felt a bit honored that they noticed her enough to even give her a nickname.

"Could I talk to you for a second" her boss asked.

"Sure" she said "just let me hang my stuff up, and I'll be right there."

When she got back to the bar, he hadn't changed positions, but now the ginger tabby was on the bar next to him, and Gary was absently stroking its back.

"He's beautiful" Ruthie said, stroking the cat as well "what's his name?"

"He doesn't really have one, so I just call him Cat."

Ruthie looked into the cat's green eyes for a second "it fit's" she said at last.

"I was wondering if you could do me a favor."

"Sure Mr. Hobson, what do you need?"

"Well you might want to hear what it is first, before you say yes."

"After those tickets, I owe you one."

Gary just shook his head in denial, but plowed on. "I'm in the 'Orchard Street Shakespeare Company' and we're doing 'Taming of the Shrew' this year. I was wondering if you could do the sets and scenery and stuff."

"Sure, when do you need it, and where's the theater?"

"The play is the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and I'm headed down there tomorrow at four in the afternoon, could you come with me then?"

"Like I said, sure; was there anything else?"

"Just one, your parents don't know do they?"

"Know about what" she answered quickly, suddenly nervous.

Gary just shook his head "they don't have the first clue".

"About what Mr. Hobson?"

"About how good you are, how talented you are. They think art school is some sort of pastime until you find a husband or something, don't they?"

Ruthie didn't want to answer, she suddenly felt ashamed of her parents and their attitude, how they had never asked her why she did what she did, had never asked her what she wanted to do with her life; or worse, had laughed when she told them the truth, unwilling to believe that she was serious. "Nope, no clue whatsoever. They have their lives Mr. Hobson, art isn't a major part of it."

"But their kids are, from what little I've heard I know that much."

She leaned forward on the bar, her face suddenly fierce "do you know what they called it, the best art school in America; they called it 'that place'. They couldn't even say the name. And even though I got a full scholarship, they weren't going to let me come here until Simon got a job here in Chicago. They already have my life planned out for me Mr. Hobson, in their eyes; all I'm doing is delaying it a bit."

"Does your brother know?"

"Not yet, but from what I told him last Monday, he should be close to figuring it out."

"But the National Gallery, Time Magazine, how could they not know?"

"I don't know, I just keep waiting for them to mention it, and they never do."

"Maybe you should tell them, it might help them understand the life you want to lead."

"Are you speaking from experience", sheasked with a waspish tone.

"Yeah, I am" he replied, ignoring the tone of her question. "I was this hot-shot stock broker, then it just stopped being what I wanted to do. I quit, and later took over this place. My folks were not real understanding at first, and I resented them for it. But eventually we talked and they realized how much happier I was. Once I showed them that, things got a lot better."

"Maybe I should. I mean communication does go both ways after all. She sighed "Thanks for the advice Mr. Hobson, I won't guarantee I'll take it, but I will think about it."

"Understood" Gary replied. "Actually there is one more question I had." When Ruth turned to look at him, he continued "why haven't you sold anything, you wouldn't need to be working here, that's for certain?"

Ruthie glared at him for a second, and then realized that he honestly didn't understand; "would you sell your cat,Mr. Hobsonor your parents, or your wife, or your friends? No, of course you wouldn't, but you would allow them to be with other people, people that cared about them for who they were, not what they represent. I could never put a price on my art, it would be like pricing my kids, but if someone genuinely loves it for what it is and what it says, and not because my name is on it, then I let it go, but never for money." With that, she went to get ready to work.

Gary wandered back into the office, from the look on her face, he didn't' need to ask Marissa if she'd heard the conversation. "Well what do you think?"

"I think I understand why most people think artists are a few cards short of a full deck; they just don't look at life the same way that most people do."

"Do you think she's alright?"

"Are you asking my professional opinion?"

"Sure, as a bar owner, tell me what you think."

Marissa laughed at his intentional misunderstanding, then got serious. "I think she's one of the best people I've ever met; she's kind, considerate, determined, and very ethical. The problem that most people will have with her is that they won't understand her point of view, few people really could."

"Teressa tried to explain it to me, now I think I'm beginning to understand."

The two friends fell silent, contemplating the dark haired girl in the other room. There was a third person contemplating the waitress, but Cat kept his opinions to himself.

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Tuesday was a pretty slow day, both for Ruthie and for McGinty's. She was able to leave work, get a bit done on a project, change into something a bit cleaner, and still be early. Gary was waiting for her, and together they headed over to the theater. They didn't really say much to each other on the way, yesterday they each had gotten more food for thought than they had expected or quite possibly wanted. They got to the theater and went in. There were about two dozen people there and they all greeted Gary warmly. He immediately introduced Ruthie as someone who had volunteered to work on the scenery and whatnot. He had no more than gotten this out of his mouth, than she was seized by a short, red haired woman.

"Ah, someone creative to help out our small production."

"Ruth Camden, this is Bonnie Russo, she's the director" Gary supplied.

Once the other woman had let go of Ruthie, she remembered her manners "nice to meet you" she said.

"And you darling, so what are you going to do for us?"

"Well, that depends, how do you want the production to look? Do you want it traditional, _avant-garde_, minimalist, you tell me what you want, then I create it. Oh, and commentary is appreciated, but I can be a bit stubborn at times when it comes to the things I'm creating."

Bonnie just smiled, "minimal scenery would do splendidly, and you have total control over it, I doubt I'll even suggest anything."

Ruthie thought for a second "sounds good, I can sketch something out and have it to you in a week and the finished product ready for rehearsals by November 3."

Bonnie just beamed at her, but as the girl turned to walk away, she spoke up "do you have any ideas for costumes?"

Ruth turned "I could make some suggestions, who's your costume person?"

"Why, you are dear. I do lighting and direction, you do props, costumes and scenery, that's why I asked Gary to find someone, I was swamped doing it all."

The younger girl just nodded. As she headed to the seats to start sketching ideas, she began to wonder if she hadn't bitten off more than she could chew.

She sat back, and in between sketches, she watched Bonnie and these obviously amateur actors. They were having such fun and seemed so comfortable together; truth be told, Ruthie was a bit jealous. Suddenly the doors banged open, and a short brunette walked into the theater like she owned it. "OK Hobson, I'm here".

Crumb started to laugh "Brigatti, he talked you into this nonsense; I didn't think that was possible."

"He just talked me into trying, and if you say one word Crumb, I'll let Winslow know about a few incidents in your past" the woman's eyes flashed warning, and Crumb wisely let it go.

Ruthie was just staring at the bristling woman, wondering who she was, and how she would have the opportunity to interact with someone like Mr. Hobson; someone who seemed totally different from her. Gary walked over, and Ruthie was preparing herself for more verbal fireworks, when the spitfire just melted into his arms. It was such a sudden and total transformation that Ruthie couldn't help but laugh; unfortunately it was pretty loud. Brigatti, who had been in the process of kissing her husband, whipped around "something funny kid"?

Throwing caution out the window, Ruthie answered "Yeah, there is. You just gave the most perfect audition for Katarina that I've ever seen. You are exactly that character, exactly; and I found it funny to see someone who just embodied a role so perfectly."

Brigatti turned to Hobson "cute kid, just who the hell is she?"

Hastily Gary made the introductions "Ruth Camden, waitress and scenery designer, Toni Brigatti, my wife and maybe Katarina."

Toni knew who the girl was, at least her name. It had been bugging Gary for a week because he couldn't place her, so he had asked Toni to do a search. The girl had come up clean, heck cleaner than clean; no wants, no warrants, no arrests, no tickets, not even a warning. Brigatti had even called up some people from the girl's school, just to see if there had been some trouble that had been dealt with 'in house'. Not only was there nothing like that, but from what Toni gathered they all loved the kid, they were even thinking about offering her a job after graduation. Ruth Camden might not be a saint, but she was certainly in the ball park. Toni had heard about the painting she had done for Marissa, and thought that maybe her teachers understated the girl's quality.

On the other hand, Ruthie was a bit shocked; she hadn't known that Mr. Hobson had a girlfriend, let alone that he was married. And if she had known he was, this was the last person she would have picked as his wife. Suddenly it hit her, looking at these two very different people that were married to each other, the entire costuming scheme and the scenery was in her mind, clear as day. "Excuse me" she mumbled to Brigatti and snatched up her sketch pad.

Toni was a bit put off by the abrupt dismissal, but Bonnie was waiting to talk to her. Giving the oblivious girl a final glance, she went down to learn about her character and what was expected of her.

"Like I said, cute kid" Brigatti commented as she passed her husband. Gary looked up to see Ruth sketching away on a pad, blind to everything else around her, and then it hit him. He remembered where he had seen this girl before, sketching and statues and a diving tackle.

With a smile to himself, he went down to work with the new members of the company and learn more about his character.

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Ruthie looked up, apparently Bonnie had been calling her name for a minute now; "what?"

"I asked if you had anything to add."

"Not right now I want to talk to you after you're done, if you like my idea for the costumes then I'll present it at the next rehearsal".

Bonnie just nodded, talked for a minute or two and then dismissed the troupe. Reggie and Sophie stayed, and were running through some lines while Bonnie went up to see what Ruth had to say. Ruth showed her the sketches of the set and scenery that she had made, and she explained her idea for the costumes. When she got done Bonnie was stunned.

"You've never done anything like this before, designed sets, props, costumes?"

"No, never; is it that bad?"

"Bad, no my darling it is the most original design I've ever seen, and your costume idea is just brilliant. Did you have any idea what you were going to do before you got here?"

"No, it just came to me."

"Well if you ever want to do this full time just let me know, I could give you the names of some people in New York and Los Angeles who would be very interested in your work."

"Thanks Bonnie, but no; this is just a favor to Mr. Hobson. I've got other things I want to do with my life."

"All right, but be sure and let me know if you change your mind."

"I will, good night." And with that, Ruthie left the theater. She didn't take her usual route home; she wanted some time to think. Bonnie seemed to know what she was doing, and had loved Ruthie's work; maybe she should consider doing something like set design, at least to pay the bills. She was headed across the LaSalle Street Bridge, when she heard someone yell for help. She ran toward the sound, and saw a rather disheveled woman running the other way. Up ahead, under a street-light, she saw Mr. Hobson facing a guy with a knife.

"Listen buddy, she's gone and I'm broke, so why don't you call it a night."

"I need the money man, I need to score."

"Not here, and not now, so give it a rest huh."

"You chased away my mark, now I'm gonna take it outa your ass."

The younger man began to stalk Gary; Ruthie was looking around for a weapon or something so she could help, when help arrived.

"OK, drop the knife Zorro."

The young man looked up and Ruth looked over to see Toni Brigatti with a gun. "Come on; drop the thing before you hurt yourself."

"Why should I?"

"Because I'm pointing a 10 mm Smith and Wesson Police Special at you you moron, and the longer we talk, the more I'd rather shoot you and save myself the paper-work I'll have to go through to arrest your dumb ass."

Brigatti's tone and the fact that her pistol was drawing a steady bead on his forehead convinced the guy that she was serious. Slowly he put the knife down.

"Good boy, now hands above your head." As he complied, she frisked him, cuffed him, and sat him down by the bridges railing. Then she turned to her husband. "Dammit Hobson, why don't ya tell me when you're gonna stop something like this."

"It was just a mugging Toni, I thought I had it under control."

"Whatever, you just be more careful, I don't want to have to come down to the morgue and ID your dead ass because you thought you had something under control; alright."

"Your right Toni, I should have let you know."

"Be sure you do; hey did you at least get a 'thank you' this time?"

"Nah, I rarely get those, you know that. That's one reason I remembered RC, she actually thanked me, twice."

The rest of the conversation was drowned out when a patrol car pulled up. Brigatti identified herself, and had the officers take the mugger away. Ruthie used the noise and the lights to get out of there without being seen. She was still trying to figure out everything that she had just seen and heard. Two things, at least seemed crystal clear. Stopping a mugging was not unusual at all for Gary Hobson, and three and a half years ago, Gary Hobson had saved her life.


	6. Sometimes You Miss

THE LEGACY – CHAPTER 5

Gary was in the dog house, again. So he hadn't told Toni, it was just a mugging, the kind of thing he had stopped hundreds of times before. He couldn't understand how it had gone so wrong, he was just glad that his wife had bailed him out. But now she was furious because he had been in danger and hadn't told her. Right now he couldn't remember the reason he hadn't said anything, he was sure that it made sense at the time, but now it just looked like a really stupid move.

"Just apologize Gary."

"I would if she'd give me a chance, but anytime I open my mouth, she threatens to shoot me."

"She's scared, that's all."

"Why should she be scared, she's the one with the artillery."

"She's scared because she loves you Gary, she's so self contained that the possibility of losing the person she cares about most in the world is frightening."

Gary just sagged "so what should I do" he asked.

"Send her something that says 'you're sorry'."

"You mean have someone else take it to her."

"If she's not letting you near, then yeah, use a courier."

"And what should I send?"

"That one's up to you Gary, she's your wife after all."

"I know, thanks for your help Marissa."

"You're welcome; now let's take your mind off your problems by telling me what's in the paper today?"

"Just one thing, but it's bad. A high speed chase is gonna go wrong and both the suspect and a police car are gonna hit a busload of kids. And it's gonna start with the suspect shooting and killing a traffic cop."

"Oh my God Gary, how are you going to stop this, it sounds like you need Toni for this one."

"Of course I do, but it's kinda tough to include her when she wont listen to me, isn't it?"

"Then I suppose you better make peace with your wife, and soon."

"But now we're back to how, aren't we?"

Just then they both heard Brent the bartender call out "hey RC, how ya doing? You look like you barely slept."

"Yeah, but when inspiration strikes, you just gotta go with it."

Just then Gary had an idea, a way to both apologize to Brigatti, and warn her. Going to the door he said "hey RC, can you come back here for a second."

"Sure Mr. Hobson, just let me put my stuff away."

Five minutes later Ruthie walked into the office, she seemed nervous "what can I do for you Mr. Hobson?"

"I need you to do a sketch for me real quick, and then deliver it."

"Alright" the girl answered, perplexed "what am I sketching and where is it going?"

"Could you sketch me in a doghouse, and deliver it and a note to Brigatti?"

"Sure" the girl answered "give me about ten minutes and I'll be on my way".

Both Gary and Marissa thought that she meant that she would start in ten minutes, but she had meant that she would be done in ten minutes. Ten minutes later she walked back into the office with a cute little drawing of Gary, propped up on his elbows, halfway out of the door of a doghouse. He was stunned.

"You just did this?"

"Yeah; why, don't you like it?"

"No no, it's amazing; what I wouldn't give to have talent like this every now and again." He shook his head and got back to business. "Run the drawing and this note down to police headquarters and find Lt. Brigatti, make sure she gets it. This is important Ruth; it's not just me making up with my wife; so you have to make sure she gets it, OK?"

"Sure Mr. Hobson, I can be stubborn from time to time."

"I bet you can kiddo" he said as she left.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

On her way to the police station, Ruthie stopped and bought a small bouquet of carnations. She didn't know if Brigatti liked carnations or not, but every guy should know, you don't apologize to a woman without flowers.

The police station was not anything like the one in Glen Oak. Well that was understandable; Chicago was a bit bigger after all than Glen Oak. She stopped and asked the Desk Sergeant where the detectives were. "Third Floor" he answered without even looking at her. As she headed up to the third floor, Ruthie was reminded again and again of how different this place was from where she had grown up. She saw more guys in handcuffs than she had ever seen outside of TV. She figured since Brigatti was a Lieutenant, she would probably have a pretty good office, one away from most of the noise. Ruthie actually found it without much trouble, and knocked.

"Yeah" the woman said, without looking up.

"Detective Brigatti?"

Brigatti looked up and saw a nervous young woman, after a second she recognized the girl. "Camden right, you're the new waitress and scenery girl."

"Yeah, that's me. Ummmm. . . . Gary sent these over for you, along with this." She handed Brigatti the note and drawing, and laid the flowers on the detective's desk.

The detective's eyes crinkled up in a smile when she got a look at the drawing. "Did you do this?"

Ruthie just nodded; there was something about Brigatti that just made her nervous.

"You got talent kid, gotta give ya that one" she said as she opened the envelope.

Suddenly her manner changed completely, like it had the other night at the theater; she went from light hearted and laughing to deadly serious in seconds. Ruthie was worried that Mr. Hobson had somehow said the wrong thing in his note. Well, there was only so much she could control, so she tried not to worry too much. "Is something the matter?"

Brigatti jerked her head up out of the note "no, just tell Hobson I'll take care of it. Actually, tell him to work at the back end; he'll know what that means. And tell him thank you, OK."

Ruthie just nodded again. She had no idea what the message meant, but maybe it was some kind of code word that only meant something to Gary and Toni; whatever it was, it was none of her business. She left the police station and headed back to McGinty's, trying to understand the weird situation she seemed to be in the middle of. It was obvious that there was something other than a fight between a husband and wife going on, but she couldn't figure out what it could be, and how the mugging the other night factored in. She got back to the bar and passed on Detective Brigatti's message. Gary looked confused for a second, as though the message was as nonsensical to him as it was to Ruthie, but then his face cleared. He thanked her for what she had done and then turned and had a very hushed conversation with Marissa.

Ruthie went back to work taking orders and chatting with the customers. She was starting to recognize the regulars and anticipating what they wanted, and this made her tips go up, which was a good thing.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

At least one part of the save had gone well; the article about the traffic cop being killed was gone. Now the guy was shot, but his Kevlar vest saved him, so score one for the good guys. But now Gary was just trying to delay the bus another two minutes. The problem was that he had been delaying it for five, and the driver was becoming a bit irate.

"Buddy, I'm telling ya that there's something wrong with the wheel there."

"Listen, I've already told ya that the bus was just checked over a week ago, the wheel is fine."

"Would you at least get out here to check?"

"I'm already late because of you, I don't need any more hassle, now buzz off or I'll just run ya down."

The driver leaned back into his seat and closed the window, effectively ending the conversation. Gary checked the paper, the collision was still going to occur, and a lot of kids were gonna die. In the distance, Gary could hear sirens getting closer. He just stood there, in front of the bus. The driver revved the engine, but Gary didn't move. Slowly he eased the bus forward until the bumper touched Gary, then eased out on the clutch slowly. He was pushing Gary along, and still the article hadn't changed.

'Well' Gary decided 'desperate times, etc.' so he stepped to the side, pulled out a pocket knife, unfolded the blade and stuck it into the bus tire. The driver immediately stopped the bus, and with an incredulous look on his face picked up a tire iron. He was getting ready to come down and discuss the length of Gary's hospital stay when an old Trans-Am came around the corner too fast. It lost control and plowed into a dump truck that was parked there. If the bus had been moving, it would have been a head on collision.

Gary just looked at the driver and yelled "call for an ambulance" and raced over to the wreck to see if there were any survivors. He looked in the car to see, and then just staggered away. He made it about ten feet before he just collapsed in the street retching. There had just been blood and parts, you couldn't tell that there had been two people in that car just seconds before.

He got himself under control after a moment or two, and just sat there on the pavement. He knew that he had just saved sixteen people and prevented a lot more from going to the hospital, so why did losing two feel so bad? With all the police and gawkers and school kids there, he just stood up and walked away, no one even noticed.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Marissa had seen him like this before, when a save hadn't gone perfectly, when lives had been lost. She knew that Gary always blamed himself, even if was something he was powerless to stop. Carefully she followed him up to his loft. The door was open; she could hear his ragged breathing and knew he would be sitting in his chair, wiping the tears from his eyes.

"Do I have to remind you that you saved fifteen kids and a man with a wife and two little girls?"

"But I missed the two teenagers, didn't I?"

"What could you have done Gary, they weren't stopping for the police, they surely wouldn't stop for you. All you would have ended up doing is getting run over or shot."

"There had to have been a way Marissa, I believe that there must have been a way to save all of them."

"You can't control what other people choose Gary, and those choices have consequences, sometimes really bad ones. You of all people should know that."

"I know" he sighed "I know, I just keep thinking that there was something I should have done, some other way I should have handled it."

"You did everything right Hobson" said a voice from the door "sometimes people just let you down."

Both Gary and Marissa turned at the sound of Toni Brigatti's voice. Marissa could hear the sadness in her voice and Gary could see the tears on her face. "I told my guys to follow em quietly and box them in, but some moron of a Cook County deputy sees a speeding car and fires up his sirens, and then the chase is on. He shouldn't have been where he was, he certainly shouldn't have inserted himself into our operation, but he did, and those two kids died; but not because of you." She walked over and with a fierceness in her eyes she fell to her knees, took his hands and looked up at him "not because of you, you hear me, not because of you."

The three of them sat there and cried, for missed opportunities and the whims of fate and lives lost. The tears dried eventually, but Gary just sat there shaking "I went over to see if either of them had survived" his voice caught "that was the worst thing I've ever seen in my life". He just sat there and shook with the horror of what he had seen. Toni, who understood this, just reached up and held him. She didn't say anything, because there was nothing to be said at the time, she just held the good man that was her husband.

Sensing that she would be intruding, Marissa got up and headed back down to the main floor. She had to admit that there were times when she wondered if Toni Brigatti was the right woman for Gary; but at times like this, she had no doubts what so ever.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Teressa walked with Ruthie down to the theater that afternoon. Apparently neither Gary nor Toni would be there, and they had to tell Bonnie. Ruthie supposed they were probably busy making up after their fight and didn't ask. Teressa knew that something bad had happened to make them forget the fight, but she wasn't sure what it was, some times you just don't speculate. After Teressa had passed on her message, Ruth asked her to stay, for a bit at least; she wanted Teressa's opinions on the set, scenery and costumes. The two girls were talking quietly while Bonnie put the cast through their paces. Finally she came to a stopping point and asked Ruth to share her ideas. Teressa had provided some great advice, so Ruth asked her to help with the presentation. As the girls started, the cast didn't seem that interested, but by the time the two were done they were hanging on every word.

"The only problem I'm gonna have is finding plastic pallets. I can get wooden ones, but plastic would do better."

"We ship stuff out on plastic pallets" said Phil, an older guy who was playing Pedant "just give me a call tomorrow and you can talk to our shipping guy, he can tell you where to buy them. He handed Ruthie his business card.

"So do you like the ideas for scenery and stuff" she asked.

She got quite a few enthusiastic responses, especially from Bonnie; so she headed back to school feeling pretty good. "Could you give me a hand with this stuff" she asked Teressa.

"Sure, I'd be happy too, and your secret is safe with me."

"What secret?"

"The great and all sufficient Ruth Camden asking for help, no one at school would ever believe it."

"Yeah, yeah; I hear ya" then she laughed "for that matter, my family wouldn't believe it either."

"Why not?"

"Cause I'm more independent around them than around here."

"Why is that?"

"It's just the way we were raised, because of my dad being a preacher, we were so focused on helping out everyone else, that it just felt wrong letting someone else help us."

"Well I'm glad you're breaking that pattern, everyone needs a hand now and again."

"I know, but it's a tough habit to break, so thanks for everything, and I do mean everything."

Teressa flushed a bit, she had never known Camden to be so open. "You're welcome, and take care getting back to the dorm."

"I will, see ya tomorrow." And with that the two friends headed their separate ways.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Gary Hobson jerked awake at about two in the morning, the scream barely contained behind his lips. He had looked in the car from earlier, and seen Chuck and Marissa; but then the faces had changed to Brigatti, Crumb, Armstrong, a slew of others, and finally his parents. Realizing that there was no way he'd get any more sleep that night, he carefully got out of bed, so he didn't wake Toni and quietly eased over to a chair across the loft, he picked up his copy of 'Lost Chicago' and turned on the reading lamp. It fell open to the picture of Snow and Cat. Gary wondered how the man had coped with the times that he had failed. Did he have friends like Gary did; friends who would do so much for him. He leaned back and wondered about the man who had gotten the paper before him. Four and a half hours later, he was awakened by the sound of a newspaper hitting the floor and Cat wanting in.

Several blocks away, Ruth Camden also woke up from a nightmare, but she didn't have to hold in the scream. It was a nightmare that she had had for the last couple of years, in which no one pushed her out of the way of the statue. But what had caused her to sit up wasn't the nightmare, but a revelation brought on by the nightmare. She had heard running first. She distinctly remembered that. She heard the running feet, then the tearing of the straps holding the statue. That could only mean one thing, Gary had somehow known it was going to happen; somehow he had known that Ruth Camden was going to be killed that day and had stopped it. But how, he certainly didn't act like a psychic, and he didn't act like someone who got messages from God, so how did he know. Well she knew how to snoop quietly, her brothers and sisters certainly knew that she did, so she would snoop around Gary, and try to figure out how he could know something that he couldn't possibly know.


	7. Getting the Story

THE LEGACY – CHAPTER 6

As it got closer to Halloween, Ruthie found herself busier than she had ever been, between school, the play, and her job. Well both her jobs actually, because in addition to working at McGinty's she was spying on Gary, trying to figure out how he knew what he knew, and if he still does it. One of the things she was sure of was that he only knew things about the next day, like he was psychic, but only for twenty four hours ahead. She had figured this out when she had asked about the weather one day. Gary had told her exactly how the weather was going to be that day including where and when it would be raining; but when she asked about the weather a couple of days away, he gave the same vague answer as the weather channel.

She had started reading the _Sun-Times_ because Gary always seemed to have a copy with him. She was trying to see what articles he was focused on, but sometimes he would be looking at a page that she found to be all ads, it didn't make sense. Well, one bit of good news was that with Teressa's help, she'd be done with the scenery and such soon; then she would just have to go down to rehearsals and show how it was to be moved. But that would free up more time for Gary watch. She had also started talking to both the staff and the regulars about Gary, and had heard quite a few funny stories. The one person she didn't ask was Marissa, because Ruthie was convinced that anything Gary was involved in, Marissa knew about it. She was just finishing up her shift, and was listening to Mr. Paige yarn on, when Marissa spoke up; "Ruth, could I talk to you for a moment?"

"Sure Marissa, give me a minute to hang my stuff up."

When she came back she noticed that Marissa seemed a bit nervous. "Ruth, I need to talk to you about the holidays. Since you're new, you are going to have to work either Christmas or Thanksgiving; not the days themselves of course, but all the days around them. So I need you to choose, and I need to know your choice tomorrow. I hope that's not too inconvenient."

"I understand Marissa; I'll call my folks tonight and let you know."

"OK Ruth and I'm sorry about this."

"Don't be, I understand." Well she understood; she just hoped that her family would.

That Evening:

Reluctantly Ruthie dialed the phone; this was not going to be the kind of conversation she was looking forward to. After a couple of rings, she heard her mom pick the phone up. "Camden residence."

"Mom, its Ruthie"

"Hi sweetie, is something wrong?"

"Kinda mom, I've got to ask you a question."

"OK" Annie said, a bit of worry evident in her voice.

"Do you want me home for Thanksgiving or Christmas?"

"You won't be able to make it home for both, do you need money dear."

"No, it's not money mom, it's my job; since I'm the new waitress I've got to work one or the other."

"Do you have a preference?"

"Not really mom."

"Well everyone is coming in for Thanksgiving; I suppose that would be best. Are you sure you can't be home for both.

"Yeah I'm sure. I wish I wasn't, but I'm sure."

"Alright sweetie, I understand, I don't like it, but I understand. I love you."

"I love you too, Mom. Bye" and she hung up the phone. Well that had been a lot less painful than she had imagined. Now she just needed to call Simon and try to get on the same flight out so her folks wouldn't have to make multiple runs to the airport. As she picked up the phone, she checked the clock. It was only nine, but she was seriously considering just going to bed. She chuckled to herself, her roommate would think something was wrong; she was never in bed before midnight; but the thought of just racking out really felt good. She resolved to take a shower and hit the sack right after she talked to her brother.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Gary shouldn't have been running, but he was. The little kitchen fire hadn't wanted to go out, and the tenant hadn't been much help because he kept trying to put an electrical fire out with water. Eventually Gary had handed the guy the extinguisher and cut the power at the fuse box. But it had taken time, time that he didn't really have. He glanced again at the paper 'Photog in coma after being hit by debris'. Apparently Diaz was taking some pictures of a building going up and was gonna be hit by some materials that were either going to be thrown or blown off of the building. He ran into the construction area, ignoring the yells of the foreman.

He stopped and looked around, there was Diaz snapping away at the steel and concrete as it went up. Gary looked up and saw several small items come off the side of the building, they were so high up that he couldn't tell if they had been thrown or not, but it was clear that Diaz was not aware of them.

"Diaz" he yelled, dashing towards the photographer. Diaz kept snapping his pictures, oblivious to everything around him. Gary kept yelling, and finally Diaz looked up at him "Hobson" he said, as though he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"Look out" Gary yelled.

Diaz looked up, finally aware of the danger he was in, but for whatever reason he seemed rooted to the spot, unable to move. Gary could hear the air whistling around the falling objects, they were that close, as he covered the last couple of feet and caught Diaz in a flying tackle. Gary and Diaz went one way and his equipment went in another. Gary was aware of a large crunch as he was laying there covering up, and hoping that he was out of the way.

After a few seconds, he believed that he had survived the accident, then he looked up and saw Diaz looking murderous. "Man, you broke both my cameras."

"You're welcome Miguel" Gary said, not believing what he had just heard.

"Without them I may as well be dead, they're my babies." Gary watched the Latino start moving the junk that had fallen until the shattered remains of the two cameras was visible. They had been totaled, and not only that, all of the film had been exposed.

"Man I hope you hire me again, cause after today there's no way I'll be at the _Sun-Times_."

"Right Miguel, you've been fired what twelve times, and they keep takin ya back."

"But even with talent like mine you just can't count on that Hobson; they were wanting these for some story that's going out tonight."

"You remember what they were interested in" Gary asked.

"Of course, I'm not an idiot."

"Could'a fooled me" Gary muttered. Then an idea hit him and he quickly checked the paper "come with me back to McGinty's, Diaz; I think I know someone that can save your bacon."

"Whatever happens man, you owe me for two cameras; got it."

"Sure Diaz, just see me in the morning, I'll replace em."

"OK then lets go see this savior of yours."

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Ruthie was nearing the end of her shift, when she saw Mr. Hobson walk in with a younger man. "Hey RC" he called "you got stuff to sketch with?"

"Yeah, Mr. Hobson; always."

"Could ya get it, there's a bit of an emergency here."

"Sure" the girl said, and went to get her stuff. When she walked back out, she saw Mr. Hobson and the younger man sitting at the bar. "Ruth Camden" he said as she walked up, "this is Miguel Diaz, from the _Sun-Times_. Miguel's a photographer."

"That's 'photo-journalist' Hobson, how many times I got to tell you that." The young man seemed angry.

"Anyway, Camden here is a pretty good artist, maybe you could describe what you were trying to get and she could sketch it for you."

Diaz looked scandalized "they want pictures Hobson, not drawings".

"Well what have ya got to loose, you don't have pictures now do you."

"No" the man grumped "thanks to you".

"Well, give it a try, who knows, they might like it."

Gary walked off, leaving Ruthie with the angry man. "Listen, if you don't want to try, I'll understand" she said.

"Nah" the man said finally "Hobson's right, I've got nothing to loose. So, what do you need me to do?"

"Just close your eyes and imagine the best picture you took, the one that you were sure they'd love. You got it in your mind?"

"Yeah, I got it."

"So where's the sun" she asked as they got started. Diaz kept his eyes closed and described the scene he was seeing in his mind. Once Ruthie felt that she had the gist of it, she told him he could stop now and she would just fill in the details. As she sat there sketching, she asked Miguel how he knew Gary. The answer she got surprised her.

"Man, there's a story there, I just can't seem to get it all together. I've been on him for five years; you wouldn't believe the stuff he's been involved in."

"Yeah, like what?"

Miguel proceeded to tell the girl about the Frank Scanlon case, and the disasters where he had seen Gary, and the people who had been miraculously saved by a man that fit Gary's description.

"You think he's psychic" Ruthie asked.

"I don't know kid, anyone else I'd say no way, but Hobson, he's just too spooky for words. All the stuff that he just happens to be in the middle of, it's weird. A couple of years ago, there was this detective that was convinced that Hobson was some sort of master criminal, and that was how he kept showing up at all these disasters."

"So what do you think?"

"I don't know what I think, but I do know that the cop ain't in Chicago no more."

She sat there sketching and listening to Diaz go on about Gary Hobson, she was learning boatloads about the man, but none of it seemed to add up. Finally she felt like she had what the guy needed and showed him her drawing "this in the ball park"?

Diaz was amazed; he made his living with images, and so was able to recognize the immense amount of talent that had just been at his disposal. The sketch was perfect, not photograph perfect, but it caught the truth of the scene. "You are one talented kid" he said.

Ruthie blushed; it felt good to be appreciated, especially by someone who was an artist in his own way. "Thanks" was all she said.

"Listen, if they run it, I'll split the fee with you; cool?"

"Whatever you think" she answered, she honestly didn't care about the money. "Let me know when you need something like this again, OK; it was fun."

Diaz just shook his head as he left McGinty's and hurried back to the paper, he was sure that they were gonna love this.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

The story ran the next day, along with the drawing; Ruthie got paid enough to keep her in paint a month or two, and some more notoriety. She also got a call from the paper, the features editor wanted to know if she could do something like that every week. "Sure" she had answered, it was fun, and meeting the journalists seemed cool. She had thought a bit about taking money for her art, but she looked at it as a contract, after all, it was stuff she normally wouldn't have done. So in that way it wasn't like selling one of her paintings, something she still adamantly refused to do.

But all this, even Gary watch, was overshadowed by the approach of Halloween. Marissa wanted a theme for the day, something that everyone could take part in. Gary didn't seem to care one way or the other; he simply assured everyone that he would not wear a gorilla suit. Crumb reminded everyone that McGinty's used to be a speakeasy in the twenties, so they should all get up in vintage clothing and such. Everyone seemed to like Crumb's idea, so they went with it.

The night before, the bar was redecorated to look more like it had back during the roaring twenties; it was fun with the whole staff helping out. Gary had even hired a couple of three piece jazz bands to play, one during the day and one at night to add to the atmosphere. Halloween day dawned, and Ruthie showed up to class in costume. She was dressed as a flapper, complete with a beaded dress and rolled stockings; her hair was held up in a band.

When she got to work, the first thing she saw was Brent, all done up like a gangster, complete with spats and a fedora. Marissa was dressed in a slinky evening gown, and said she was a torch singer. Most of the waitresses had gone for Ruthie's look, so there were a whole horde of flappers waiting tables.

The whole day was really fun; Ruthie even offered to work a double shift, just so she could see Crumb in his gangster get-up. But he surprised her by showing up in a vintage police uniform, complete with the little dome hat. What was funnier was when Brigatti showed up wearing pretty much the same thing. Gary was in a white formal dinner jacket and looked dashing.

When Simon had shown up for lunch, he was blown away by the place. Ruthie didn't know if Simon was checking up on her or really liked McGinty's, but he had been showing up an awful lot lately. She saw him glance in the direction of Lily; one of the other day waitresses and thought that there may be a third reason for him to be at McGinty's more often.

In the evening, Gary danced with Brigatti as Marissa sang some jazz standards, she really sounded great. Ruthie tried dancing herself and even though she wasn't much of a dancer, but it was fun. Mr. Paige tried to teach her some of the 'Charleston' with rather amusing results. She actually spent a lot of the evening helping Crumb out behind the bar, and chatting with the former cop.

As she headed back to her dorm, she tried to remember the last Halloween that had been this much fun. She had avoided parties at the school since her sophomore year, so it really wasn't hard to top recent memory; she figured it had to have been back when she was in middle school that a Halloween had been this enjoyable. Ruthie realized again how glad she was that she had ended up working at McGinty's, and come in contact with the people there. This line of thought ended with the mysterious Mr. Hobson, of course. Ruthie had learned a lot about Mr. Hobson in the last week, but she was no closer to how he knew what he knew than she had been when she started. Well, maybe November would provide some answers.


	8. The Play and The Players

THE LEGACY – CHAPTER 7

Tuesday was the first day of rehearsals for the play, Ruthie tried to get down there early, but stuff kept coming up, so she was running late. When she finally got there it seemed like the entire cast was in mourning.

"What's the matter" she whispered to Darlene, who seemed to be Crumb's girlfriend, and was playing the Widow.

"Sophie got transferred; she's got to move to Tampa by the end of the week."

"What are you all gonna do."

Darlene's answer was interrupted by Bonnie's voice "what's with all the long faces my darlings; we've overcome worse occurrences than this. We are theater people, we improvise and strive onward. I know we will all miss Sophie, she can't be replaced, but that does not mean that someone else can not make the role theirs. We need someone who is quiet and reserved, but has an inner fire, a hidden strength." She had been walking around while talking, but now slowed and stood in the middle of a ring of actors. "We need someone with the face of an angel and the soul of an artist" she said.

Ruthie looked around and noticed that everyone was staring at her.

"Me" she squeaked "I've never acted before."

"I hadn't either until a couple of years ago" Gary said. "Give it a try, you might like it."

"But what about the scenery and props" she said in a rush, looking for an excuse.

"Teressa's been helping you with it all, I'm sure she could handle that" Reggie said.

Ruthie grimaced and Bonnie smiled as the girl's best excuse was shot down. "Well, if you don't think I'll be too awful" she said. The cast cheered.

"All right darlings, we have rehearsals to conduct and a new actress to work with, let's get started."

Ruthie gave it her best shot, but she was nervous and it showed. She was so intent on the words that she began to drone on like she was reading the phone book. Finally Bonnie took her aside.

"You've got sisters don't you?"

"Two, both older."

"Did you ever envy them for things they had and did, only to find out that they were envious of you?"

"Sure"

"Well, that's where this character is coming from."

"But I've never done this before, and you all are so good, I'm dragging everyone down."

"Listen; everyone in this play has been where you are, and remember this is Toni's first time on stage. Get help from her and Gary and Marion, they can help you get better, but only if you want to. And don't worry about the dialogue, get the character and then be the character, the words come later."

"You really think I could be Bianca?"

"There's a lot of Bianca in you, just let her out and you'll be fine; you've got the attitude, just trust yourself to let it out."

"I'll try" Ruthie said.

"That's all we expect" Bonnie answered.

They rejoined the rehearsal, and Ruthie tried it again. She tried to focus on what the other characters were saying to her, and trying to respond in character. It made for some funny moments when her California vernacular would pop out of the dialogue. Once she had done it, Brigatti started as well, and pretty soon the rest of the company was listening to Chicago slang dueling with California slang.

Finally Bonnie stopped the two women "alright ladies, you definitely have the characters down, lets work a bit more on the proper dialogue." So the rest of the night was devoted to lines, but by the end of rehearsal Ruthie had a feel for what she had to do, and found herself enjoying acting.

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Ruthie left at the same time as Gary and Toni. She was about to say something when Gary gave a start, like he had been reminded of something and said "get her back to school Toni; I just remembered an errand I need to take care of". Both women watched him head off, shaking their heads, the man was a flake, Crumb was right about that.

They were strolling back towards the school when Brigatti asked "who were you picturing when you were talking to me?"

"My sister Mary, mostly; she kept trying to do the big sister routine even though her life was a mess at the time. It really pissed me off to have this person who had made so many bad decisions trying to tell me what to do."

"Maybe she was speaking from experience, trying to make sure you didn't do what she had done."

"Yeah, that occurred to me eventually, but I was still pissed off."

Brigatti laughed "I know exactly what you mean. I was the baby of the family, two older sisters and one older brother, and they never let me forget that I was the youngest. They always had plenty of advice and tried to tell me what I should and shouldn't do. Needless to say all they really managed to do was piss me off."

"Well, I'm not the youngest, but I am the youngest girl. I try to avoid giving Sam or Dave any free advice, but sometimes that's hard."

"What about your folks, how are they on the advice front?"

"They offer a bit of advice now and again, but mostly what they do is compare."

"Compare, I don't get it."

"They say things like 'your sister Lucy is pregnant again' or 'Mary just got a promotion'; then they ask 'what's new with you', forcing you to compare your life to the other kids. They just can't let me be me; they keep trying to make me into my 'more successful' siblings."

"You think they don't do that to the other kids?"

"Nah, I'm sure they do, that doesn't mean I have to like it though."

"True, and it must be a bite with your dad being a preacher and all, having a bunch of gossipy old women talking about every screw up you commit."

"That part does kind of suck, but guess that all in all they're pretty decent people; at least they've never let me down, what's your family like?"

"My dad worked the assembly lines and bowled and went to Mass. Other than my ma and us kids, that was his life. He never complained about it, not in front of us at least, but he always had this look when he got home, like working there was killing some part of him. He died two weeks after he retired. I just came home one day, and there he was in his chair. I figured he was asleep and started fixing dinner, then my brother and his wife come over while I'm in the kitchen and she starts screaming. For the longest time I think my brother blamed me, like if I had noticed something sooner then the ambulance guys could have brought him back or something. Eventually that went away, but I'm still not over the pain that all that caused."

"So you're not close to your family?"

"Not really, my sister Marie is a couple years older than me, and we're pretty tight, but she's traveling all the time so I don't see her much. The rest of the family tolerates me, and that's about it, and I pretty much feel the same way about them. So is your family close?"

"Yes and no. You've got Matt and Lucy and their spouses and kids that live in Glen Oak along with my parents and the twins, then there's me and Simon here in Chicago, and Mary in Buffalo. But everyone still speaks to everyone else, so we're close that way."

The two were approaching Ruthie's dorm. "Thanks for walking me home Toni."

"No problem kiddo, it was fun yaking with ya; besides I want my time on the stage, we can't afford to loose anyone else."

Ruthie laughed "I'll try to behave."

"See that ya do, or I'll bust your chops."

"Goodnight Toni"

"Later RC" the older woman said as she headed back to McGinty's. Ruthie was supposed to have been mugged that night. It had just been Toni with her because Gary was off making sure a house didn't burn down. As she headed on, all thoughts of the play left her head, and she was just left hoping that her sometimes reckless husband was alright.

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As November ran on, Ruthie found herself working more at her role than her art. That was a first for her, but she didn't mind. Anyway, her grades certainly didn't suffer; she had enough work built up to last half the class the rest of the year. In addition to learning her role as Bianca, she also found herself working with Teressa on the mobile. She was doing a piece in glass that went from red to amber, with little bits of white and blue thrown in, but relatively little. Ruthie wasn't sure what effect Teressa was trying to create, but she needed the help and Ruth was there to help, it was her Camden nature after all. Another thing she found herself doing was spending a lot of time with Brigatti, and this was good for several reasons. One, Brigatti was a neat lady and Ruth enjoyed getting to know her. Two, it gave Ruth a chance to ask questions about her husband, and she got some very interesting clues. And three it allowed her more opportunity to watch her boss's comings and goings, and all this was added to the information pool. Before she knew it, the performance was almost there.

It was the Friday before the play, and Ruth was helping Teressa with the mobile, she was too nervous to work on her own stuff. For some reason Teressa wanted to call it 'Chicago's Legacy'; that didn't make a whole lot of sense to Ruthie, but then again it wasn't her piece.

"You scared about tomorrow Camden?"

"God yes, I think I'm gonna puke and pass out every time I even think about it, who knows what I'll be like at curtain time."

"You'll do fine; but even if you suck, the set and costumes are great."

"Thanks, I think."

"I'm sure you'll do fine, any chance your folks are gonna make it out here?"

"From California, no way; Simon said he'd be there though."

"You're pretty tight with your brother, aren't you?"

"Yeah, he's my best friend, other than you, and he's always been there for me, but how about you, any brothers or sisters."

"Nope, I'm an only child."

"Your folks coming up to see your brilliant set design?" As soon as Ruthie asked the question, she could sense that it upset her friend. "Hey, just forget I asked, and I'm sorry."

"No, it's alright; at least it's not your fault. It's just that my family life was pretty twisted for a while."

"Hey, my dad's a preacher; we've had every kind of weird come through our house for counseling and stuff. Not to mention the stuff that goes on in every family. So if you want to talk about it, I'm here to listen, and if not; well that's cool too."

"No, I think I want to tell you. I mean it's been four years, you'd think I'd be ready to deal with it, but it still hurts." Ruthie said nothing, knowing her friend would continue when and if she wanted.

"My folks got divorced when I was twelve or so, and it was pretty rocky before that. Anyway, it was real messy with all kinds of accusations and charges flying back and forth. I was scared most of the time; it was the worst time of my life. Finally it ended and I was with my mom, and things were pretty good. But then she died, and I had to go live with my dad."

"Was that so bad?"

"We'll just leave it at 'my dad is a raving psychotic'. I ran away and came up here, and when he found out where I was he came up and beat the crap out of Brent and Gary."

"Oh my God, where is he now?"

"Serving twenty to fifty in the Tennessee state penitentiary. If I never see him again, it'll be too soon."

"So what happened when you got here?"

"Well, I lied and got a job at McGinty's; I guess Marissa figured something was twitchy and had Toni investigate me. Anyway, between the two of them they figured out what was up. I figured I had just got a one way ticket back to Memphis, then Marissa tells me she'll be my foster mom if I want. I couldn't believe it."

"She seems like a great lady."

"She is, she took me in when I was just some red-neck runaway, and treated me like I was her daughter. Her and Gary both, they're my family; just like I really was their kid. Did you know he pays my tuition, all of it, every year."

"Really, is he rich; I mean he doesn't act it or anything."

"I don't know if he's rich, but if anyone needs money you just ask and he comes through."

"Just like that?"

"Well if you make a case for it, I mean he won't just give you money for the asking, but he's real generous."

"Sounds like you've got a great situation."

"Yeah it does, but there's something funny going on."

"What do you mean?"

"It's like there's some secret that they won't let me in on, something huge that's always around but no one talks about it."

"You mean something about your past, or why they treat you like they have?"

"No" Teressa said "I don't think it has anything to do with me specifically, it's just something that they haven't let me in on."

"That's weird."

"Yeah, but I figure if it's important, they'll clue me in on it sooner or later." Teressa stepped back from her work and motioned Ruthie to do the same. "Help me raise this thing up and we'll see if it's close to what I hope."

The two girls pulled on a rope that went up to a pulley that was attached to a pretty thick beam over the middle of Teressa's studio area; the rope was attached to the mobile. As they raised the sculpture, there was a lot of tinkling as the glass pieces hit each other, but no breakage. Eventually it was up and secured, Ruthie looked at it critically, it was good but not spectacular. She looked over at her friend, trying to think of a nice way to say average, when she noticed that Teressa looked really pleased with herself. 'This is gonna be rough' Ruthie thought, but then really saw what her friend was looking at. There were some faintly yellow spotlights shining through the sculpture and this light created shadows on the floor, but because the glass was clear, the shadows were colored. On the floor and walls around it Teressa's mobile had created the illusion of fire. Suddenly the name 'Chicago's Legacy' made a heck of a lot more sense.

Ruthie looked at her friend, eyes getting wide "Teressa, its brilliant".

"You serious Camden" Teressa asked. Ruthie was known as a harsh but honest critic and Teressa had never heard her use the word brilliant unless she was discussing Chagall.

The dark haired girl just nodded, the mobile itself was OK, but when you added the fire illusion it created, the work took on a new level and significance. "This is definitely 'Guggenheim' material."

Now Teressa knew that Ruthie was jerking her chain, she looked over at her friend to protest but immediately saw that she was serious. "You really think so?"

"You know me, I wouldn't say it if I didn't mean it. And I mean it, this is fantastic."

"Well, what do you say we quit while I'm ahead and let's get out butts down to the theater for dress rehearsal?"

"Sounds like a plan, as long as we go back to McGinty's and celebrate this thing properly afterwards."

"Deal" Teressa said.

As the girls were walking Teressa spoke up "thanks for everything Camden, the idea and the support and all, I appreciate it."

"You're welcome" Ruthie replied "and thanks for trusting me enough to tell me about your folks, I know that wasn't easy."

"What can I say; you're my friend after all."

"Well thank you for being my friend; it's something I really need, even if I don't admit it a lot."

Teressa could see her friend was blushing, she realized just how hard it was for Ruthie to admit she needed people and help, so "you're welcome" was all she said.

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After dress rehearsal, Ruthie, Teressa and the rest of the cast headed back to McGinty's. It was a pretty lively evening with a lot of singing; Reggie decided to teach the cast a bunch of English pub songs, and everyone in the bar joined in. Quigley, being Irish, didn't care much for them and headed out early for once. Ruthie was getting ready to head back to her dorm when Teressa caught her arm. "Not tonight Camden, you're coming home with us."

"Why?"

"Mostly because I think you'd get lost in your current condition, but also because I want you to get some decent sleep for a change and I know you'd be up early trying to work if you stayed at the school."

Ruthie would have been inclined to argue if she didn't think Teressa was right in both cases. So she stood around enjoying herself, but not drinking any more; soon it was closing time.

Then she headed out with Teressa and Marissa and Riley (of course). Once they got to Marissa's place she just bid the girls goodnight and asked that they keep it down. Teressa and Ruthie stayed up a bit talking about school and the play tomorrow (Reggie was a nice guy, but Ruthie wasn't looking forward to kissing him). Finally they fell asleep, and for once Ruthie Camden slept through the night with no distraction or disturbance.


	9. Two Thanksgivings

A/N I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of the people that have taken the time to review my story; your feedback means a lot to me and I appreciate it greatly. I also want to apologize because I feel like I'm missing a lot of good stuff as the story progresses and I suppose I am; but there is a reason. The crux of the story occurs at New Years, and I was wanting to get to that as swiftly as possible without compromising the characters or the plot. I'm sure there were some of you who would say to yourselves 'Why didn't he expand on this or that, there was some good stuff still there' and I would agree with you. But I don't want to forget what the focus of the story is, and going off on a tangent that has just cropped up is a great way to do that. So if you're thinking to yourself that I've missed some great opportunities for side stories, you're right; but you wouldn't be thinking anything that I haven't thought myself. Maybe some day I'll go back and fill in the spaces and corners, or you; gentle reader, could do that yourself. But I really want to get this story told, so for now it's full speed ahead. I again appreciate your reviews and your tolerance for my shortcomings; thank you.

POE1911

THE LEGACY – CHAPTER 8

Ruthie was feeling like she was on top of the world. She and Simon were making the four hour drive from San Francisco to Glen Oak. In the plane she had decided to find out just how much he knew about her and the success that she had enjoyed.

It turned out that Simon knew a bit, but not everything. He had read the magazine article and thus knew about the National Gallery pictures, but didn't know about her winning the Guggenheim or having one of her works there on permanent display. He knew that there were collectors who wanted to buy her paintings, but was blown away by how much had been offered. Of course he had asked her why she had turned that down, but when she answered, he seemed to understand exactly what she was saying. He didn't say anything about compromising her principles or just giving in cause she needed the money, and as far as Ruthie was concerned, that qualified him for sainthood, again. She had asked him about Lily, but Simon had just blushed and said that there was nothing there. 'Yet' Ruthie added in her mind.

Once they had rented the car, Ruthie asked her brother if he had told their parents anything abut what he knew.

"Nah, that was your news, not mine."

"So they don't know."

"WHAT, you mean you never told them?"

"I've been waiting for them to ask about it, but they never have, so I've never said anything."

Simon just whistled "that'll be an eye opener."

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Gary was actually looking forward to this Thanksgiving for a couple of reasons. The most important was that over the last few months he had converted the upstairs storage room into a guest loft, so his parents wouldn't be staying in the same apartment as he and Toni. The other was that Toni's sister Marie was coming. This had the amusing side effect of Toni going completely bonkers, working to make sure that everything was perfect. Of course the paper would have something to say about that.

Gary didn't know what it was, but something about the holidays seemed to bring out the idiot in everyone. As he checked the paper, it looked like a busy day. Two guys in line at Midway were going to start punching each other because of a dispute over who was in line first; a guy in Niles was going to the hospital because he was trying to grill a beer can turkey without popping the tab on the beer. The can and grill were going to explode and he would end up with second degree burns. Finally some bored kid was going to try and escape his relatives by climbing out onto the buildings fire escape and running off. Unfortunately he was going to slip off the escape and fall three stories and break his back.

Now all of these took place at close to the same time, but none of them were near each other, so Gary was going to deal with the kid and have his parents deal with the other two. He told his dad to take care of the grilling accident because if he was trying to break up a fight in an airport, Bernie would probably end up arrested. Gary loved his dad but the man was just not subtle. Toni was beside herself. "How the hell am I supposed to get all this ready?"

"Don't worry about it Brigatti just do your best, we'll be back soon."

"Come on Hobson, you know I'm a disaster in the kitchen."

"Get your sister to help; it'll give you two a chance to catch up."

"Marie" Toni laughed "she's more of a kitchen terror than me."

"Just do what you can, but we've got to run." With that he sprinted out the door to the McGinty's van where his parents were waiting. Toni just shook her head and wandered back into McGinty's kitchen. She looked at the 'to do' list that Lois had made for her and surveyed the kitchen again. "OK" she said to herself "what the hell is a yam."

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Lois Hobson got off the El near Midway Airport. She figured that the best way to stop this would be delay one of the men, that way they wouldn't get to the line at the same time and thus, no fight. She had the names of the men from the article, so she was going to play the former acquaintance game just to slow one down. There was one headed for the Northwest check in "William is that you"?

The man turned around "excuse me"?

"Now I'm hurt William you don't remember me, it's Lois, you mothers old friend."

The young man gave a bit of a grin "I'm sorry, I don't remember you; what did you say your last name was?"

She was spared from answering when a fight erupted in the check in line; she had picked the wrong William.

Lois ran over to break up the fight before it became too serious. In her best mother/drill sergeant voice she bellowed "you two stop that right now, or so help me".

Both men froze (as all intelligent men will when hearing that tone from a woman) and looked at each other warily. Lois took this as a good sign and continued "now if you want to keep this up you'll get arrested and then you definitely won't get wherever you want to be. So figure something out and do it quietly before the Air Marshal's decide to intervene."

The men understood the logic of this and decided on a coin flip. Checking the scrap of the paperthat Gary had given her, Lois saw that the article had changed. She headed back to the El station to catch the train back to McGinty's, Lois figured Gary and Bernie didn't need to know that she had started out with the wrong guy.

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"Get away from that you moron."

"You screwed this up; I'm just tryin' to fix it.

"What'd I screw up?"

"You're doin one of those beer can turkeys, right?"

"Yeah, but how did you know?"

"Did you remember to pop the tab there Einstein?"

"Well of course I popped the tab; you think I'm an idiot or something."

"Yeah, I do think you're an idiot, because this doesn't sound like one of those beer can turkeys, you can tell by the sound and the smell."

"So what are you, the turkey inspector?"

"Nope, just some guy passing through."

"Well I'm telling you I popped the tab and everything, right now all you're doing is pissing me off."

"Hey if you say so mack", just then a high pitched noise started coming from the grill. The guy looked confused, trying to figure out what it was; Bernie, knowing what it was tackled the guy and started crawling towards the pick-up truck in the driveway. The guy was starting to really get pissed when his grill blew up.

Bernie just looked at him "you sure about that tab?"

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Steve Wallace always hated Thanksgiving. It wasn't that he had anything against Turkey or Pilgrims or anything like that. He hated Thanksgiving because this parents always dragged him to his Grandma's place. That wasn't too bad, his Grandma was OK for an old lady; the real problem was her two sisters. Neither of them had ever married, and since he was the only grandchild, they focused all of their very annoying attention on him. They would pinch his cheek and tell him how big he was and ask about school and everything. As far as he was concerned, they were just as relentless as the tide, and just as inevitable. Well not this year. He had found the exit to the fire escape from his Grandma's apartment and had already checked it to make sure he could get out of there without making noise.

He had told his parents he was going to the bathroom and had headed for the escape instead. But when he got there, there was already someone on it, an older man.

"Hello Steve"

"Hi"

"Need a break from the family?"

"Just my aunts, they drive me crazy."

"With me it was my parents."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I'm an only child, so I never got a minute to myself; it was always something, and usually something embarrassing."

"So did you ever try to get away?"

"Every holiday, sometimes they found me, and sometimes they didn't, but I always tried."

"Are they OK now."

"Yeah, I always knew they loved me, just sometimes it was a bit much."

"You think I should go back in?"

"Not right now, just sit here a while. You can go back in later."

"He sat there with the boy in a very comfortable silence. He thought about his family, and how much he loved them, and how much they drove him crazy. In a lot of ways, it reminded him of his relationship with Brigatti. They could drive each other so crazy so easily, but how much they loved each other as well. He was looking forward to getting back to a nice dinner, but especially his wife. He checked the paper quickly, and saw that the article had changed. Scanning the _Sun-Times_ quickly, he couldn't find anything else that required his attention, so he headed back to McGinty's, saying goodbye to Steve first of course.

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It had been a while since Toni Brigatti had seen her sister, but she looked just the way Toni remembered her. Marie Brigatti had been married once, to a guy that turned out to be a real creep. She had ditched the creep and gotten a job with Delta Air as a stewardess (or whatever the correct term is). She had used what free time she had to take classes and get her pilots license, and now she flew all over the world without having to worry about dealing directly with crabby passengers.

Marie hugged her sister and looked around. "So where's your husband?"

"He had to run some errands with his folks, he'll be back soon, how was the trip in?"

"No problems."

"They letting you loose behind the stick yet?"

"No, not yet, and it's a yoke, not a stick; got it?"

"Yeah I got it, soon?"

"There are a couple of domestic routes opening up soon, I'm sure I'll be considered, I've just got to be patient." She looked around "so you married a bar-tender."

"No, I married a bar owner, there's a difference."

"So he owns the whole building?"

"Yep, him and his partner."

Any other questions Marie might have had were forgotten when she got a look at McGinty's kitchen. It looked as though several explosions had taken place and there was half prepared food everywhere. "Toni, what did you do?"

"I tried to cook Thanksgiving dinner" she said sheepishly.

"Yeah, this I can see, but what happened?"

"Honestly I'm not quite sure, I got the green beans cooking, but that's about it."

"Well you get on with the cooking and I'll try to get some of this disaster cleaned up."

With that, the sisters went to work.

When the Hobson's arrived back at McGinty's they noticed all the sound coming from the kitchen. The walked through the doors to see what was happening, when a delicious smell hit them; it was garlic toast. A great smell to be sure, but not something you would traditionally associate with Thanksgiving.

"Is this your sister" Lois asked.

Toni looked up from what she had been doing; she hadn't even heard the Hobson's come in. "Yeah, it is; Marie, this is my husband Gary and his folks, everyone, this is my sister Marie, the airline pilot."

Marie was greeted warmly, and she deftly escorted her brother in law and his family back out of the kitchen. A few minutes later, Toni yelled out for everyone to sit down and she brought out Thanksgiving dinner. Bernie already had the carving knife ready to go; but there wasn't anything to carve. Toni brought out a huge plate of manicotti. There was garlic toast, an antipasto plate and a good Chianti to wash it all down. To say that the Hobson's looked confused was a huge understatement. "Where's the turkey" Bernie finally asked.

Toni blushed furiously "It didn't turn out quite right, and we were kinda running out of time, so I made the only thing I could think of. My Grandma always served a huge plate of manicotti at holiday meals, so it just seemed right.

The three Hobson's just shrugged their shoulders, after all, who was to say what was traditional at Thanksgiving. Seeing them dig in the way they did, warmed Toni's heart; what could have been one of those epic family disasters had turned out right because her in-laws were willing to bend a little. As she was eating, Toni just had one question that she had to have answered. "Lois, what the hell's a yam?"

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They were a half hour away from Glen Oak when Ruthie asked the question she'd been wanting to ask since Sunday "so what'd you think of the play, Simon"? Ruthie was interested for several reasons, not the least of which was the fact that Simon had shown up to both performances with Lily as his date.

"It was good, I'm not usually a theater kind of guy, but I liked it."

"What did you like the most?"

"The two main characters, they were great, and the scenery and costumes were pretty cool. Did you do the set?"

"Partially, I did the scenery and costumes, but Teressa helped me with the set, actually it was mostly her with me helping."

"Well the guy in the paper really liked that stuff. You'd never done anything like that before, had you?"

"Nope, but Bonnie, she's the director, seemed to think I showed promise and said she could help if I decide to do that full time."

"So what are you gonna do after you graduate?"

"I'm not sure, I'd like to find something in Chicago; I really love it there."

"Well, wherever you end up, you'll do great things, I'm sure of it."

Ruthie smiled at her brother, he sincerely did have confidence in her, much more than she had in herself certainly. Further thought on the matter was cut off because they were entering Glen Oak. It was strange for Ruthie, because for the first time in her life, it didn't feel like she was coming home, but rather visiting someone else's home. As they pulled into the driveway, the entire clan came out to greet them. Annie had indeed been successful in getting everyone home for Thanksgiving, even Mary and Carlos had shown up. Ruthie was practically carried out of the car and into the house, she wasn't really sure if her feet touched the ground or not, but she really didn't care, she was with her family.

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For Ruthie, the surprises started coming at dinner when Mary spoke up. "Carlos and I were down in New York City for a weekend back in October, and stopped by the Guggenheim museum. We saw some really interesting art, including a painting by an artist named Ruth Camden, ring any bells?"

The entire table became silent as the whole family, even the guys at the little table, turned to stare at Ruthie in enquiry. Her furious blushing was all the answer most needed, but Kevin spoke up "you mean there's a famous artist out there that's also named Ruth Camden?"

"No" Matt said "the only artist named Ruth Camden is sitting at this table."

"The Guggenheim" Annie spoke up "is that good or something?"

"Mom" Simon said with some exasperation "The Guggenheim is the most prestigious museum for modern art in the country, practically in the world." Turning to his sister he asked "is it a temporary exhibit."

Ruthie shook her head and quietly said "no, it's part of the permanent collection."

"Well" Matt said "that certainly explains this article I read in Time that was talking about new artists and mentioned a certain Ruth Camden for a few paragraphs. I honestly did wonder if it was you, Ruthie, but I figured it had to be."

Now Ruthie was practically crimson, she had wanted her family to find out, but now that they were, she found it really uncomfortable. The stunned bunny looks that her parents and Lucy were wearing didn't make her feel elated either; it just made her feel sad for them.

"Well, I told you all that school was going good for me."

"Yeah, but 'arguably the best artist under thirty in the United States', you certainly didn't hint it was going that well" Matt accused.

"I guess we have different definitions of well; that and somehow it felt like bragging. I was getting all of this attention for doing something I loved, something I would do anyway, and it just felt wrong to talk about it. You know I didn't even keep the Guggenheim fellowship that I won, I mean I kept the award and the statue, but I donated the money to the school."

"How much was that" Eric asked.

"It doesn't matter" Ruthie said.

"No" Eric pressed "I really want to know."

"One hundred and fifty thousand dollars; along with my work on permanent display at the museum. I accepted the second part obviously, but it just felt wrong accepting the money, so I gave it to the school."

"You gave away more than a hundred thousand dollars" Lucy gasped, looking at her little sister like she was insane.

"More than that" Carlos chimed in. "A collector wanted to buy a painting, Ruthie said no. The guy was offering half a million dollars, and she said no."

Now the silence in the house was deafening, everyone wanted to ask the question, but no-one knew how. Finally David voiced everyone's opinion "were you on drugs or something?"

The room erupted in laughter, strained a bit, but still laughter; and the tension eased off a bit. "No David, I wasn't on drugs or something, I tried to explain this to my boss when he asked about it, and I do have a reason, but if you're not an artist, it does sound kind of crazy, so stick with me a second." She turned to her mother "mom, if some lady came up to you and said 'my daughter is a tramp with a horrible reputation, marrying your son would redeem that, so would you sell me Sam'; or 'my daughter spends money like it's going out of style, sell Simon to me so he can take care of her', you'd give her a very polite version of 'get lost' wouldn't you?"

"Of course"

"But if someone said 'my daughter is in love with David because he is such a great kid' you wouldn't have a problem with him dating the girl, would you?"

"No"

"That's how I feel about my work, it comes from me, it was created by me; if you want it because my name is on it, or because you look at it as an investment, those reasons aren't good enough and you shouldn't have it. But if you love it for what it is and what it says, then you should have it. If that's the case I give them away, I could never sell my paintings for money any more than you could sell your children for money. I know that sounds really pretentious, but that's how I feel."

Silence reigned at the dinner table for a while, then conversation started up again, but it was subdued. Nearly everyone had to re-evaluate someone they had thought they knew, and that was never comfortable.

After dinner, Ruthie sat with the guys watching Chicago pound the snot out of Detroit. She smiled to herself thinking how Toni and Gary would be while they were watching the game. As she sat, she sketched her family; trying to capture their souls in paper and charcoal. It would never be perfect, but she loved the attempt.

"I never had any idea" said a voice behind her.

"About what" she asked Lucy.

"That you like football. Come on Ruthie, what do you think I was clueless about? How could I have missed how talented you are?"

Ruthie thought for a second, seriously considering the question "well, you have your life, and I have mine; you don't share your hopes and dreams with me, they're too private. All mine are tied up with art, if I don't talk about my dreams, I don't talk about art, it's as simple as that. I always wondered how you could be a minister. I don't understand how anyone can stand up in front of people every week and talk, let alone advise anyone on spiritual matters; there's no way I could do that."

Lucy thought about that for a moment, then asked something she had always wanted to know "so does it take you a long time, I mean how long does a painting take."

"I guess it depends, sometimes weeks sometimes hours. The one I did that won the Guggenheim I painted in forty eight hours. I remember a quote from some composer, I think it was Beethoven but I'm not sure 'sometimes my work is the product of toil and anguish, and sometimes I just stand back in awe of the majesty of the hand that is guiding mine'. Don't you have to work on some sermons for weeks and others seem to write themselves."

"Yeah, I do; so what you're saying is that we are pretty much alike except for what we turn out talents to?"

"Sure, you do things I could never do, and vice versa, that doesn't mean I'm more talented or more admirable than you, we just excel in different areas."

Lucy looked down at her little sister "so what have you got there?"

"Just some sketches, what do you think?"

Lucy looked at what her sister had done in the last few minutes. Lucy found the sketch Ruthie had done of Kevin to be simply remarkable. Somehow in a few strokes of charcoal on paper her sister had captured his essence, his humor and passion and goodness, tears sprang unbidden to her eyes. "May I keep this, please?"

"Of course, it's your husband after all."

"Thanks Ruthie and I wanted to apologize."

"For what?"

"For not seeing you for a long time, I just saw what I wanted to see, and that wasn't fair to you."

"No problem Luce; hey, you wanna watch the game?"

Lucy just shuddered "football, how can you stand watching that Ruthie" she asked and then left the room.

Ruthie looked around the room at her brothers, both natural and by marriage. They loved her; she admitted to herself that she had forgotten that from time to time, but never again. Picking up her pad, a little smile on her face, she went back to sketching.

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After the fireworks on Thanksgiving the day after was anticlimactic. Marie went shopping with her sister but was surprised when Gary came along, leaving his parents and Marissa to cover the bar. She was also surprised when Gary and Toni broke up a rather nasty dispute between two shoppers. She wasn't surprised that Toni had butted in, that was just how her little sister was, but she was a little shocked when Gary was right there with her helping out. They hit some specialty shops that you had to know about to find, and the sisters found some real bargains. All in all, they hada pretty good day.

In California, the Camden women had gone shopping with a vengeance. Unfortunately for Ruthie, it seemed as though she was everyone's project for the day. Lucy and Annie were trying to make her look something a bit more peppy preppy, while Sarah and Mary were pushing in a power suit direction. Unfortunately for all, except Ruthie, she found a store that specialized in vintage concert T-shirts. The young girl was instantly in Nirvana, and any hope of change went out the window. When they got home, Ruthie relaxed, she thought that after yesterday, there were no surprises left; but Simon had different plans.

At dinner, he announced that he had a video he wanted everyone to see. Not knowing what it was, the whole family crowded in to watch. Simon toldthem it was something a friend had taped off the public access channel in Chicago. Without any more information he put the tape in and shot an evil smirk at his little sister. Ruthie felt her stomach drop, she was afraid of what would come up. The opening title justified all her fears: The Orchard Street Shakespeare Company presents 'The Taming of the Shrew'. About two minutes into the show, Matt suddenly leaned forward, looking at the screen. He whipped around "Ruthie is that really you?"

The fact that his sister was turning an interesting shade of red was all the answer he needed. The family watched the rest of the show, then the questions flew thick and fast. Ruthie told them about how she had just been there to do the scenery and props and stuff, but then had been roped into playing Bianca after the original Bianca got transferred.

"So Ruthie" Eric asked "you designed the set and the scenery and the props and the costumes."

"Yeah, although my friend Teressa did most of the set."

Everyone thought that the sets and stuff had been really good, and now they realized that their sister had done that as well. A lot of mental eyebrows went up.

"And you said the lead actor and actress was your boss and his wife" asked Mary. "Are they like that in real life?"

Ruthie shook her head at that one "they're pretty great, but Toni does have a bit of a temper". Then she happened to casually mention that Simon had been to both performances with the same girl. Simon glared daggers at her, while the family shifted focus and rained questions down at him. Eventually he satisfied their curiosity enough so that they turned back to Ruthie.

There were a few more questions about what she had done specifically, and Ruthie recounted a few funny backstage stories to them. The conversation then drifted into acting in general and plays that everyone had seen.

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"Annie, what are you doing still up?"

"How could we have missed it?"

"Missed what?"

"Ruthie, how could we have missed her talent, how much she loves what she does; we're her parents, how could we not have seen that?"

"I guess we just weren't looking at the right things."

"I just feel so bad, all those years with no support no encouragement."

"Don't beat yourself up too badly over it; after all she wasn't the most talkative daughter in all the world."

"True, but I still feel like we should have known something."

"Maybe, and I see the wheels going in your head, what are you cooking up sweetie."

"Well, what do you think about . . . . ."


	10. Gathering the Pieces

THE LEGACY – CHAPTER 9

Ruthie was surprised at how much she had missed Chicago. She had gotten back and had a long talk with Teressa about everything that had happened over Thanksgiving, including her parents' reaction.

She thanked Gary for his advice on parents in general, then told him and Toni what her family had thought of their performances in the play. With the play now out of the way and the semester winding down, Gary watch swung into full gear for the dark haired girl. She was watching him like a hawk and soon her observations paid off. She also got a chance to meet Chuck, who was in town for a bit with his wife. Ruthie had seen her on TV before, and she wondered to herself what a woman like that saw in Chuck. After seeing how different Gary and his wife were, the difference between Gary and his best friend wasn't such a shock. She decided that Chuck could be amusing at times, but that she really didn't like him.

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Gary hated headlines like this 'Club fire kills 50'. Aside from the obvious reasons to not like a story like that, getting people to leave a building that wasn't yet on fire, not to mention having the police think that you started it; were just added bonuses. Unfortunately the paper wasn't clear on how the fire was started; he could only hope to prevent lives being lost. He was trying to come up with a plan, when RC walked in. Gary had really taken a shine to the young woman, almost thinking of her as a little sister, what with jumping into the play and Marissa's painting and all. It was clear that the girl was quality goods.

"Hey RC, why don't people believe anything until they have no other choice?" He didn't know why he had asked that, he honestly hadn't realized he was speaking aloud until halfway through the question. He saw the girl pause and frown and then continue on to the waitress lounge (broom closet). He was sitting there brooding on mankind's stubborn streak when she answered him.

"Believing something that isn't proven is inconvenient. When you say that you believe something like that, every yahoo around ask 'how do you know' not because they believe anything else, but just to be jerks. So then you're forced to stop whatever it is you're doing and think, so rather than risk thinking, people just don't believe."

Gary just gaped at the girl for a second "that's probably the most cynical thing I've ever heard out of someone that wasn't over fifty."

"What can I say, I'm a preacher's kid, and I've seen more denial than a therapist. Every day they'd parade through my dad's study, wanting some sort of easy out to their problems, and then backing off when they found out it would take hard work and that they would have to change."

"I thought artists saw the good in people?"

"Nope, we just see people, warts and all. I truly believe that most people are basically good, but belief in something unproven and intangible takes strength, and a lot of people aren't that strong." It was then that Ruthie noticed the headline about the fire, and the fairly spectacular picture that went along with it.

That surprised her because her edition of the _Sun-Times_ didn't have a picture of a club on fire on the front, and there certainly wasn't anything about 50 people dying. She excused herself and went about opening the bar up. All the while, though, she was thinking about the headline in Mr. Hobson's paper. How could his be different from hers? Was he getting some sort of special paper that had things in it that were usually kept from the general public? She shot that notion down herself. Too many people would know if there was a club fire, there would be no way to conceal it. Mr. Hobson seemed to know a lot of the people at the paper, maybe someone had a copy printed secretly just for Gary. Was that even possible? All through her shift she sorted through ideas and schemes about how what she had seen was possible. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts and her work that she didn't even notice when Mr. Hobson had left the bar. "He had an errand to run" was all Marissa would say.

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How do you prevent a bee sting? That was what Gary was wondering as he rode the El towards Garfield Park. Richie Ingle, 37 was going to die from a bee sting in about forty minutes; which is why Gary was asking himself the question. A hit and run or a fire was something he could stop, but an insect, how the heck was he supposed to keep an insect off this one guy in a huge park.

He was getting off the El near the park when he realized that he didn't have any bug spray, no repellant, nothing that would kill at a distance or just drive the damn thing away. He saw a news-stand nearby and bought a Rolling Stone because it was the biggest magazine they carried. Then he went bee stalking.

He paused after a couple of minutes; this was late November, in Chicago how the heck was a guy supposed to get stung? He looked around and saw a couple of picnic pavilions, one with a couple of walls providing shelter. That must be it Gary thought, and he headed that way. Sure enough, there was a guy in the walled pavilion, along with his girlfriend.

"Richie Ingle" Gary asked.

"Who wants to know?"

"My name is Gary and I'm with the City Park Commission, this place is infested with bees and you need to leave."

"Later man, we're busy" he said looking at the woman.

"No, I really need you guys to leave."

"Hey, you're interrupting a personal conversation buddy, beat it."

Just then, Gary saw a bee hovering over Richie's shaved head. Quickly he swung the magazine and knocked the insect out of the air. Unfortunately he also managed to clip Richie a bit.

"See" Gary said, "I told you, bees." He turned back to the couple and found himself looking straight into the chest of a very large, very angry man. "Uhmm" was all he managed to get out before he felt a pain in the side of his face, and the lights went out.

When he woke up, the article had changed and Richie was nowhere to be seen. Gary reached up and very gently assessed the damage. "One very black eye, that's a heck of a thank you" he muttered to himself as he headed off to the next disaster; some idiot was gonna kill himself with a home-made bungee cord. 'Why do I put myself through this' Gary wondered, then looking at the picture of the soon to be dead man, he headed off.

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It was actually Chuck that came up with the way to make the save. Jade went into the club with a clear bag of confectioner's sugar stashed in her purse and hid it near one of the bathrooms. Gary couldn't believe that Chuck had spilled the beans about the paper to his wife, but he understood about not wanting to keep secrects. Plus they were usually in LA, so no real conflict there. When she was clear, Gary called from a pay-phone and said that he had seen a drug drop at the place. Toni made sure that the tip was taken seriously and that there was heavy police presence. Not only were the 'drugs' found, but several of the patron's were carrying, so they were arrested. It was darned inconvenient for everyone concerned (especially the mopes that got arrested), but the building didn't burn and fifty people were still breathing air the next day.

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That was the day Ruth Camden had an errand as well. She was headed down to the _Sun-Times_; trying to understand the mechanics of how someone could get a different paper than everyone else, or even if it was possible. What had driven her to this was the appearance of Mr. Hobson yesterday. She had just been finishing up her shift, when he walked in, well more or less.

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His left eye was purple and almost swollen shut, and he wasn't so much limping as lurching; as though both his legs hurt him, but in different ways. Ruthie had started to go to him, to see if he needed any help, when she was stopped by Lily.

"Leave it RC or he'll chew your head off."

She looked at the older waitress, and could see the sincerity in her eyes. Rather than argue she just nodded and went back to work. Brent had also seen Mr. Hobson's state and had disappeared into the back; Ruthie assumed it was to tell Marissa. Sure enough, a couple of minutes later, Marissa appeared carrying two ice packs and looking concerned. Lily came up to her again.

"In about five minutes, that red phone will ring and someone will be taking an order up."

"So this happens a lot?"

"Couple times a month, sometimes more, sometimes not for a while. Actually it's been a while since something like this."

"Really, he just shows up injured, with no explanations."

"Yeah, pretty much . . ." But anything further that Lily had to say on the matter was cut off by the phone ringing. The older waitress just shot Ruthie a look and went to answer it.

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So now Ruthie was at the newspaper, trying to figure out just what was up. The guy at the information desk was not that informative, no surprise there, but he did direct her to find a girl named Cathy. Ruthie found her in IT (information technology) Support, helping the computer system run properly. After introductions Ruthie jumped right in. "Is there a way that one person could get a totally different paper on the same day?"

"You mean like a different _Sun-Times_, same day but different paper?"

"Exactly"

Ruthie watched the girl chew it over in her mind. Ruthie thought of her as 'the girl' when she was doubtlessly older, but she had a very childlike quality about her. Ruthie guessed they would be calling Cathy 'the girl' until she retired.

"Well, there is one way. We first do a mock up with the day's masthead to check the printing equipment and stuff. It would be possible to print a mock-up and have it different from the newspaper that comes out."

"Why, wouldn't you run the paper that's going to be printed as the mock-up?"

"Usually, but the Head Pressman could put anything he wanted there, it is just a kind of system check after all."

"So who is the Head Pressman?"

"Well that's a good question, right now it's a guy named Andy Wassman, but he's only been at the spot for a couple of weeks. Before that was Bert Toomer, but he'd only had the job six months when he retired. We seem to have trouble keeping that spot filled."

"That's because of Snow's curse" said a new voice.

Ruthie looked up to see a very old, yet obviously active black man. He had white hair and a charming smile. "There's a curse on the job" Ruthie asked.

"Yeah, there was this old guy, Lucius Snow, man had been here forever. Anyway the old head pressman had quit and Snow was the next in line, but the big-wigs didn't like him. He was an old fashioned guy, from back when the pages were set by hand; and they wanted someone more modern. He'd wanted the job for a while, and it really cut him when they passed him over. He complained and everything, but they didn't budge. So old Snow was banished to the Archives, and he just passed the rest of his life there, down in the dark."

"But you said that there was a curse."

"Oh yeah, well I was hired as his assistant about six month's later, I asked him about the job and how he got there and everything, and he told me 'no one's ever gonna hold that job for a year'. I thought he was just talkin' but he's been right, since then, no one's held the job for a year. One man was a day short when he dropped dead from a heart attack. Can't get anyone interested in the job now so it kind of rotates."

Cathy spoke up "come on Morris, you really think someone cursed a job just because he didn't get it?"

"If we were talkin about anyone else, I'd laugh and agree with ya, but old Snow was a spooky guy. Sometimes he'd run into some reporter and tell him that he'd got something wrong, the reporter wouldn't buy it, but Snow would turn out to be right. He even had the page for the moon landing done up a day before they actually landed." The old man shook his head and wandered off, muttering 'spooky' to himself.

Cathy looked at Ruthie, the newspaper woman was obviously embarrassed "he spends all his time alone down in the archives, he's great at what he does, but most people thing he's off his rails a bit."

Ruthie just smiled and nodded, but she wasn't so sure. 'Spooky' that was the same word Diaz had used to describe Gary Hobson; Ruthie wondered if there was a reason for that.

Cathy broke into her thoughts "was there anything else?"

"Yeah, actually there was, I was wondering if I could see all the stories about a guy named Gary Hobson"?

"Miguel, talk to Miguel" Cathy said.

"Miguel Diaz, the photo-journalist; I've talked to him already, I was hoping to see the actual stories, not just his versions of them."

"Hang on then, I'll dig up what I can" she typed away at her terminal for a moment or two. "Was there any particular category of story you were looking for?"

"No, just any mention of Gary Hobson."

"That's over two hundred articles, you want all of them?"

Ruthie was a bit shocked, actually she was a lot shocked, two hundred articles mentioning the owner of a bar in a huge city "uhh yeah" she managed at last.

Cathy was arranging the articles for the girl when she added "if you've already talked to Miguel, you might try Meredith Carson, everyone says that she and Hobson are pretty close."

"Thanks" Ruthie said, both for the information and for all the print-outs; where could I find her."

"Sixth floor, just listen for all the yelling, that'll be where the investigative reporters work, any of them can tell you where she is."

"Thanks again" Ruthie said, and went in search of Meredith Carson.

When she got to the sixth floor, she did indeed hear the sound of people in rather heated discussions. One of the things Meredith would do was to give the same story to two different reporters, telling them to approach the article from different sides. This kind of assignment produced a lot of conflict, but it also produced some great writing. She walked up to a pair of reporters who were bickering like an old married couple, in fact they kind of reminded Ruthie of The Colonel and Grandma Ruth.

"Why would anyone want to leave California to come here" a young Latino girl asked.

"Lower cost of living, no earthquakes" her companion started.

"Crappy weather and industrial pollution" the girl interrupted with a smirk.

"Maybe because this area is real, California, especially around LA is just the illusion of real."

They both turned to her and the girl fired off "so how are you some kind of expert"?

"I spent the first twenty years of my life there, my family is still there, but I'd rather be here; could you tell me where Meredith Carson's office is."

"Got ya there Ags" the guy crowed "a native Californian agrees with me." Savoring his victory, he retreated back to his cubicle before the Latina laid into him.

The reporter turned to the young woman "so who wants to know".

"I do"

"Yeah, and who the heck are you"?

"I'm the person that just asked you where Meredith Carson's office was, jeez" Ruthie wandered off towards the enclosed offices against the wall "and they call art students clueless" she muttered loud enough for a lot of people to hear it.

Janet just stood there seething, she had just been verbally 'kicked to the curb' by some snot nosed white bread kid, and right in front of all her co-workers.

Finding the office, but without an occupant; Ruthie headed back to the elevators wondering if anyone at McGinty's could tell her about Meredith Carson. Unfortunately the angry reporter wasn't done.

"I was trying to find out who you were" she angrily informed Ruthie, making it as much a question as a statement.

Ruthie just focused on the statement "then you should have asked" she said without breaking stride "you think they'd teach something like that at reporter's school".

Janet just stood there incredulous, twice. She had been smoked twice, publicly, and she still didn't know the girl's name. She memorized Ruthie's face. If they ever crossed paths again, it would be time for some serious payback.

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Meredith did find out that someone had been looking for her, and it had nothing to do with the reporters in the bull pen cackling like hens over the girl that had trounced Aguilera twice; something Meredith would not have believed possible. When she got back to her office, she checked her computer and saw that all of the articles about Gary that she had flagged had been printed out. Not just one or two, but all of them; someone was interested in Hobson in a big way, now she just had to figure out who it was, and whether or not it was a threat. Hmmm Cat down in IT had pulled the files, time for a little grilling.

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"Ms. Camden, could I speak to you for a moment." The voice broke into Ruthie's thoughts, class had just ended, but she hadn't been aware of it, she was too busy thinking about the articles that she was reading, detailing the very confusing life of Gary Hobson. 'Oh crap' Ruthie thought 'why would Doctor Pearson want to see me'. She headed down to the front of the lecture hall, catching a few sympathetic looks from her friends, when Pearson wanted to talk, it was rarely good.

"Yes sir"

Pearson looked around to see if anyone else was lingering, seeing no one, he turned back to the girl. "No reason to be nervous Ms. Camden, I wanted to talk to you about your friend Ms. Walters".

"Teressa; is something wrong" Ruthie asked. In the past, Pearson had asked for Ruthie's help in dealing with students who needed encouragement, help, or both.

"No, not at all; in fact it is something very right." He handed her an envelope.

Ruthie could see it was from the Guggenheim foundation. Not believing what she was seeing, she yanked the letter out and started reading; two minutes later she looked up at Doctor Pearson, her face aglow.

"Usually the faculty likes to inform the student about something like this, but she has been your friend for the last four years, so we thought we'd give you the honor of telling her."

Dropping her reserve completely, she flung her arms around the professor, and then ran out of the room, so happy she was almost singing. She wondered if her feet would even touch the ground before she got to McGinty's.


	11. The Ghosts of Christmas Eve

A/N I just wanted to again thank all of you who read, and especially those who take the time to review this story. Your comments and feedback mean a lot to me and I appreciate your time. Now, on with the good stuff.

POE 1911

In this place where shadows live

and Ghosts that failed learn time forgives

Welcome friends, please stay awhile

Our story starts with one small girl

For somewhere on this night of nights

She's looking to believe

Here among the Ghosts of Christmas Eve.

TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA

THE LEGACY – CHAPTER 10

"So she's interested in me, I'm more flattered than worried."

"Well, I'd be worried Gary, that is one very smart kid, and as an artist, she's a trained observer, I doubt there's much she misses around here."

"So you think she might find out about the paper?"

"Honestly I'd be surprised if she hasn't already figured it out. She was asking Cathy about ways to get a paper that was different from the usual one. So she probably knows you're getting something different. If I had to bet, I'd say she's thinking some kind of accomplice working at the paper and printing up something just for you with stuff that doesn't make the regular paper."

"Do you think I should just fire her?"

"Definitely not, that would just tell her that she's right, it'll be tough, but just act normal around her if you can."

"Well normal and I aren't that well acquainted."

"True enough, but try to be as normal as possible."

Gary had tried to keep that conversation in mind all through the month of December; unfortunately Gary trying to act normal just didn't work. He did do some clever things, coming in the back door after a save, being a lot less conspicuous in his comings and goings, making sure all of his 'errands' were justified. But he hadn't counted on Ruthie and the level of observation that she was capable of. Gary doing things that he'd never done before was just as clear a signal to her that he was aware of her snooping as if he had taken out an ad in the paper. What she really found funny was that she really didn't need to snoop anymore; she believed she had all the answers, even if she was having a tough time believing them. From the number of different incidents that the articles dealt with, and from an interesting conversation that she had had with Logan Winslow one day, it was clear that Mr. Hobson got a different edition of the _Sun-Times_ than most people. How he got it was still a mystery, but Ruthie was sure that it contained information that he used to save people, to stop accidents that hadn't happened yet.

In her mind, the question wasn't how he got it or why, the question was what she should do with the information that she had. No one would believe her if she said anything. Should she tell Mr. Hobson and offer help, or maybe just letting him know that she was willing to help if he needed it? That was the question that consumed her; what now.

Questions like this were tough to think on though, with Christmas fast approaching. Teressa had gotten her Christmas early when Ruthie had told her that she was a finalist for the Guggenheim. Ruthie smiled to herself as she remembered the incident; she wondered if Crumb's hearing was back to normal yet.

Unfortunately for the girl, thoughts of Christmas turned sad because she was going to be in Chicago and her family was going to be in California. It would be the first Christmas that she had ever spent away from them. Teressa had immediately offered the guest bed as an option so Ruthie wouldn't have to stay in the dorms by herself over the holiday. Ruthie had checked with Marissa first, then gratefully accepted when elegant woman had said that Ruthie would be more than welcome. Still it wasn't home, and it wasn't family.

Ruthie was experiencing a pre-Christmas gloom that was a new thing for her, and surprisingly something she shared with Mr. Hobson. She hadn't asked why Christmas depressed him so much; she figured that having to deal with self-absorbed fools at this time of the year would be trying for Gandhi. So they sat at the bar one night, just watching college hoops and nursing a couple of beers and letting each other know that they were not alone.

Ruthie had sent the presents for her family with Simon, but she sorely wished she could be there to see them opened. She had made most of her presents, not surprising for an artist, but the one for the twins was special, she hoped that Sarah and not Matt ran the video camera, because Matt always focused on the wrong thing when he was shooting. She still had one present to take care of, but that was going to have to wait until Christmas Eve night. She remembered approaching Gary and Marissa with her idea.

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"You want to hang a mobile in the bar?"

"As a present for Teressa, yeah."

"Why"

"Because it should be seen and appreciated by the public, and I think she'd want to share it with the people that are most important to her, meaning everyone here."

"But four hundred pounds of glass, that's not gonna be easy."

"I figured between you, your dad, Brent, Crumb and me, we could handle it."

"Anything else."

"Just one, I'm gonna have to rig the lighting and get a hook and pulley into place, and I can't do that while she's here, so I'm gonna have to come by late, will that be a problem?"

"Nah, just remind Toni so she doesn't come down here, guns blazing thinking you're a thief."

"I can see how that could be awkward" Ruthie said with a bit of sarcasm.

"As for getting it here, I'm sure Marissa can keep her busy for a while Christmas Eve afternoon, then it'll be up for the party that night. He turned to his partner "does that sound doable?"

"I'm sure I can come up with something" Marissa said with a smile "and that's a very thoughtful gift Ruth, thank you."

"You're welcome, after all the help she's given me, she deserves something like this." Suddenly feeling awkward, she said "I better get back to work" and left the office.

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It was Christmas Eve day, and the bar was surprisingly busy, or at least noisier than usual. Ruthie thought that could simply be due to the presence of Gary's parents. Bernie Hobson was in the kitchen, and she was sure that he was driving George crazy. He kept going on about some dish called 'gnokie' that George refused to fix. Bernie kept up with the pleading, and Ruthie was sure that George would just brain the guy soon. Lois was already trying to set Ruthie up with Gary's cousin Steven from North Carolina; he was a house painter and figured that was similar enough.

She felt a cold rush of air as more customers came through the door. She turned and said "Welcome to Mc….", that was as far as she got because she was looking at her parents.

"Hey Ruthie" said Sam "where should we sit?"

Ruthiefound herself incapable of speech, and just pointed at a nearby table. Her parents, Sam, David and Simon walked over and sat down. Ruthie followed and slowly her brain started to work again. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Well we figured since you couldn't be with us for Christmas that we'd bring Christmas to you."

"I can't believe you guys, thank you. Now, what can I get for you?"

"What's good here" Annie asked.

"Darn near anything, as long as Bernie isn't cooking."

"Who's Bernie" David asked.

"Mr. Hobson's dad."

"So what should we order?"

"Ask Simon, he's here all the time?"

They turned to Simon "all the time" Eric asked with a smile "you said once or twice."

Simon blushed "OK, maybe a little more often." Then getting himself under control said "you'd probably like the 'Chicago Ravioli', its good and definitely something you wouldn't get in California. What about you guys" he asked, turning towards the twins.

"Chicken fingers" they both answered.

Ruthie just nodded and took the order back to the kitchen. Gary was there, having pried Bernie away from George before the chef quit. Gary looked at the young waitress for a moment "what's up RC you're practically glowing, did Green Day just drop in for a burger?"

"No, my family just dropped in for Christmas."

"Hey, that's great; you want the rest of the day off?"

"Kinda, but we're really short at the moment, so I'll stay."

"Your choice, but lunch is on the house, OK and everyone's welcome at the party tonight."

"Sure, and thanks Gary."

"No problem"

She went back out and informed her family that she still needed to finish up her shift, but that lunch was on the house. She also informed them that they were invited to the Christmas party that night, that way they could meet everyone. She caught her mom checking the place out for herself; 'maybe she was still looking for signs that it was a strip bar or something' Ruthie thought. Suddenly the twins bolted upright "hey, there's a cat over there" they said as one. Sure enough, Cat was wandering through the bar like he owned the place, checking out the patrons and avoiding feet. "Can we pet him" the youngest Camdens asked.

"That's Mr. Hobson's cat" Ruthie informed them "it's probably best to just leave him be."

"How can you let a cat run loose in a place like this" Annie asked.

"I dunno mom, but he pretty much has the run of the place and all the regulars like him. Excuse me for a second; I've got another table or two to take care of." She finished up with her other customers and sat back with her family. "So where is everyone staying?"

"Well the twins are with Simon and your mother and I are staying at this old hotel called the Blackstone, it's just right down the street."

"Sounds great, gosh, I just can't believe you guys came all this way out here."

"Well, we missed you, and it gave the twins a chance to see snow."

"So how's everyone else?"

"Lucy and Kevin are fine, Savannah is growing like a weed and the next one looks like it'll be a boy. We really haven't heard much from Mary, I guess her job keeps her busy; and Matt and Sarah are fine. So how's school and everything with you?"

"Let me get your lunch and I'll answer that." She went back to the kitchen and brought the orders back to the table. "Does any body need anything else before I sit down?" Hearing a lot of muted nos, she sat back down with her family. "Let's see, my projects are going well, no problem with grades or anything, no boyfriends or anything like that, and my friend Teressa is a finalist for this year's Guggenheim."

"Now is that the girl whose step mom is a part owner of this place?"

"Yeah, that's her, you'll meet her tonight. Actually, before you all go, I do need a favor."

"What is it" Eric asked.

"Well, I was wanting to hang Teressa's mobile in here tonight for the party, the problem will be getting it over here, and for that I could use some strong Camden men."

Eric just looked at Simon, who shrugged "sure, we'll help, is there anyone else going?"

"Gary and his dad, between the five of us we should be able to handle it."

Ruthie rounded up her helpers and headed off to the studio while Annie went back to find Lois and see what she could do to help with the party tonight. 'The hanging crew' got to the studio building and piled out. Ruthie took them up two flights of rather rickety stairs to the third floor, the home of the advanced painting and design students. As they were headed for Teressa's studio, Eric asked his daughter "is your studio around here?"

"Yeah dad, it's right back there" indicating a door that was only a few feet away.

"Could I see it?"

"Hang on, let me open Teressa's spot and the other three can start getting it down, then we'll go look."

She opened up the door to Teressa's studio and turned on the lights so the others could marvel at the mobile. It was surprisingly Bernie that first noticed the fire effect on the walls and floor. Ruthie showed them how to lower the sculpture and then took Eric to her studio for a quick look around.

When she opened the door, he could not believe what he was seeing, paintings, dozens of them. Some he found brilliant, others awful, but the sheer volume of work was what impressed him the most. He looked around once more and then at his talented but enigmatic daughter "there's a lot of stuff here".

"Yeah, I just keep them up here for now; I'll store em somewhere eventually."

"You don't think that there are people who would be interested in these?"

"It's not that dad, I'm not sure if I'm interested in people seeing them. Come on, they'll need help."

Under Ruthie's direction, the four men got the mobile down and into the McGinty's van. There they managed to unload it as Toni and Lois cleared the floor. Ruthie had it set down below where it would hang and then she and the twins went about the tedious process of untangling the lines. Finally it was ready, and she had Gary hoist it into position while she made sure none of the glass pieces broke. Finally it was tied off and the lights turned on. It cast it's ever changing glow over the whole bar; and no one that saw it failed to be impressed and moved.

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Teressa just freaked when she saw her mobile hanging up in McGinty's, the girl just stood stock still for a few seconds, then came bolting over and just grabbed Ruthie and swung her around the room. "Thankyouthankyouthankyou" was what she was saying, although it was tough to hear over the ooh's and ahh's. As the party heated up everyone seemed to be getting along; even Toni hadn't shocked her parents too badly. Ruthie was watching her mom who was watching Simon dance with Lily; she figured that she should tell her mom that the girl was in Northwestern's Law School, and not just a waitress. Sometimes her mom got hung up on stuff like that. The person she really wanted to talk to finally broke away from Bernie Hobson and was standing by himself, so she eased herself over. "Dad, could we take a walk?"

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Eric Camden looked closely at his daughter, he knew that there was more to this than simple exercise; "sure Ruthie, let me get my coat."

As father and daughter made their way out into Chicago's streets he said "so what's on your mind?"

"Do you think it's possible for someone to know the future?"

"Well that was from left field, hmmmm; yeah, I do. I think that there are some people who have some ability that we don't understand who can do things like that, not to mention the possibility that God can touch us and give us knowledge of things to come, like prophets and guys like that. Why do you ask?"

Ignoring the question, Ruthie continued "if you knew someone like that, how would you be around him?"

"I don't know, something like knowledge of the future is a huge responsibility, an enormous burden. Someone like that would need all the help they could get because you would feel so responsible. Think about it, if something bad happened and a person was hurt and you possessed the knowledge to stop it, but didn't; how would you live with yourself? Why are you asking me this Ruthie?"

"I think I may have met someone like that, and I was wondering what I could do for him? I mean what can I do to help I'm just one young inexperienced girl. How could I help someone like that?"

"Well I can think of one thing, if you truly know someone who has knowledge of the future, you can help by simply being there for him, and listening to his troubles, and doing anything you can to lighten his burden, because someone like that is literally carrying the weight of the world."

"Thanks dad, you always give great advice."

"Even if you don't listen to it?"

"What can I say; occasionally I think you're right."

"Thanks kiddo, you're a real boost to my confidence."

"Just one service I provide, hey you wanna get back, I'm getting cold?"

"Sure, and Ruthie"

"Yeah"

"Thanks for asking"

They returned to the bar, one a bit confused by what he had heard, and the other determined to pursue a course that might not be the smartest.


	12. We All Fall Down

THE LEGACY – CHAPTER 11

The week between Christmas and New Years was flying by for Ruthie. Her family had only been able to stay until the 26th, but they had gone to Christmas day services at Marissa's church, and had Christmas dinner with Gary and Toni and his parents. Honestly she was surprised at how well the families had meshed, even if Annie was still a little leery of Toni because she carried a gun. Now Ruthie had a problem, how do you approach someone that knows the future and tell him you want to help. What could you say to make him believe that you just want to help him that you don't want the burden that directly working with the paper would mean? Actually she did have an idea, but she didn't know if she had the courage to go through with it.

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Gary was in a pretty bad mood, and had been for a couple of days. Christmas had been great, the fact that RC's family had been here had made it a lot more festive than it usually was. Unfortunately there were two rather negative results from spending time with the Camden's; one was his mother was now in full Grandma mode and pressuring Toni and him to have a baby, the second was that Toni was now in Michigan, trying to reconcile with the rest of her family. With his mom putting on the full court press and Toni not here and the paper keeping him hopping, he was grumpy and getting grumpier. He didn't want to blame RC, but a part of him couldn't help it.

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New Years Eve was here, and every bar in the city was busy. Ruthie was in for the whole day along with most of the staff. For a week she had tried to come up with a way to let Gary know without upsetting him. She wasn't having much luck though. So far the only idea she had was the direct approach, and even though that was more her style, it wasn't very diplomatic. But she was running out of time and it was the best she had. She had already stashed the painting and the note, now all she had to do was find a way to stash herself so she'd be there in the morning, before anyone or anything else.

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As far as Gary was concerned, New Year's Eve was one long save fest, keeping drunks from killing each other, making sure drunken girls didn't become victims, defusing bar fights; that pretty much summed up New Years for him every year. This one had proved to be no exception. He had walked three very drunk girls back to their dorm, that way they accidentally walk into a men's dormitory instead, to disastrous consequences. At last count he had put 11 drunk drivers in cabs; and now he was trying to convince a two drunken college kids that their house was going to burn down in about ten minutes.

"So you're saying there's gonna be a fire."

"Yeah, there's gonna be a fire."

"Here"

"Well of course here, I wouldn't be here about a fire across town now would I?"

"He's got a point dude."

"Nah, it's a scam, he's just tryin to crash." Turning back to Gary "and how do you know this?"

"That doesn't matter, I just know."

"Hey you want in, you're gonna have to do better than that."

"I can't do better than that, the house is gonna catch fire."

"Hey man, Cindy's screamin about the couch smoking."

Hearing this, Gary busted in past the two idiots and just followed the screaming. That was more of a problem then it sounds like because several of the rooms were already occupied by couples; couples that were producing a lot of noise on their own. Finally he found the smoke and the burning couch. He kicked the cushions off and used the fire extinguisher that he was carrying to put it out.

"Man he trashed your couch, your mom's is gonna be pissed" the friend pointed out.

"Hey dude, who's gonna cover the damages" he asked, but the old guy had already left. "Bummer"

Gary got back to McGinty's just as the ball was dropping, he sang along with 'Auld Lang Syne', but he sincerely doubted that next year would be better than this one.

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Ruthie was hiding in the bathroom. A little cliché, but effective. She had stayed to help with the clean-up and then just turned the lights out and hid in the stall. Since she was the last girl there, she didn't think it likely that anyone else would try to use the bathroom. She heard the sounds of locking up, then she waited for another half hour, just to make sure. Then, as quietly as possible, she climbed the stairs to the loft. She passed Gary's door, and went back to where the other room's entrance was. She didn't go in, that would be rude, but she did crash down in the hallway, using her coat as a pillow. She set her watch alarm for 5 AM and went to sleep.

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Her alarm went off, but not for long, she looked around, no paper. She stretched, trying to be as quiet as possible and wondered when it would get there, if it would get there. She believed that Gary was getting the paper a day early, but she didn't think she'd absolutely believe until she held it in her hands. She went through her speech in her mind, over and over, how to say what she meant while assuring him that she was neither a threat nor a thrill seeker. Would he believe that she wasn't interested in whatever rewards the paper brought, except the knowledge that she had made a difference.

Well, if all else failed there was the note. Ruthie was much better writing than she was speaking, you can't become tongue tied on paper. She was drifting in and out of sleep, so her eyes were closed when she heard the smack of a paper hitting the ground and a cat's yowling. She looked up; there was a paper in the hallway now. Slowly she went over to it and looked; Wednesday, January 2 the masthead proclaimed, it really was tomorrow's paper. She stood up, not really able to believe it even when it was in her hands. Suddenly the door to her right jerked open and she looked into the very confused eyes of Gary Hobson.

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"Mr. Hobson, uhmmm, here's your paper" she said, holding it out to him. "I knew that's how you were doing it, but I just had to see for myself, you know, I had to be a hundred percent sure." She realized she was babbling, so she tried to go with her prepared speech. She looked up into his face and couldn't believe what she saw there; a mixture of confusion, anger and betrayal. She gasped out "I just wanted . . . . . " but the rest of the words just died in her throat.

For Gary, the confusion was rapidly giving way to anger "oh I think I know what you wanted. You wanted to be a part of something beyond the ordinary so you would be more exceptional than you already are. You want the thrill of being the hero without having to work at it."

Ruthie shook her head in denial, but words failed her.

"You know what, I think you knew who I was from the minute you walked in the door of this place and if I'd been slower getting here, I imagine I wouldn't have had a paper today. So what is it money, just to know who wins, or just to have a day where you feel like God because you know everything that's gonna happen."

"No" Ruthie managed at last "nothing like that, I just want to help."

"Sure, Help, Right" Gary almost sneered "So you hide downstairs, stake out my door, nearly run off with my paper and all to help me. No thanks RC, that kind of help I can do without. You're not out of college, you've never lived outside a dorm or your parents' home, you have no idea what the real world is like, so how could you help me."

Ruthie was silent, stunned at the vehemence of the outburst.

"Let me tell you something little girl, this thing is a burden like you couldn't believe, you put yourself on the line for people that don't know your name or think that you're crazy; and at the end of the day you're lucky if no one ended up in the hospital or arrested. You rarely get thanked or even remembered and when you fail it feels like you're the one that died, or was hurt. Now somehow I don't think you could handle that, so why don't you run along and play with your paints and spy on someone else and let me do my job."

With that he closed the door in her face.

The echoes of the door closing had not yet died when Ruthie found herself down the stairs and out the front door. She made it to her studio; she was never sure how she managed that as she could barely see for her tears. They were tears of pain at what Gary had said, but they were also tears of anger and frustration because what had been said was both unfair and untrue. Ruthie got herself under a semblance of control, found the student phone and called McGinty's. She thanked God that she got the machine and not Gary or Marissa.

"Marissa, it's Ruth; I'm sorry to do this too you, but I can't work there anymore. I realize how unfair it is of me to not give you two weeks, but something happened, and it just won't work. I just wanted you to know how much I appreciate the kindness that you've shown me. Your friendship and caring have meant a lot. Please tell Gary to just tear up the note, he'll understand. Thank you for everything, and goodbye." She hung up the phone, and the tears threatened to come again. But she suppressed them, forcing them down with an iron will. She went back to her studio, closed the door, put in an appropriate CD and just sat and thought.

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Marissa was surprised to find McGinty's front door open when she got to work. 'Gary must have had an early save' she thought and went in. But Gary was here, she could hear him in his room upstairs, her brow creased in confusion; it didn't make sense. Still wondering what was going on, she sat down at her desk and played the messages on the machine. The first three were routine business, then she heard the one from Ruth. She could hear the sorrow and pain in the girl's voice. What had happened to cause her to quit so suddenly. The last part of the message mentioned Gary, maybe he would know what was happening. Slowly, almost reluctantly; she climbed the stairs. She could hear Gary pacing back and forth, the floor squeaking under the pressure of his steps, she had rarely heard him so agitated. She poked her head in the door "Gary, could I talk to you for a second."

He stopped pacing and just looked at her for a moment, "what is it Marissa?"

"Well, Ruth Camden just quit, I was wondering if you knew why?"

"Yeah, I'll tell you why, the little snoop was trying to make off with the paper, and then when I catch her, she tries to say that she's just wanting to help."

"You really had to take the paper from her?"

"No, but I opened the door and she had it in her hand with this wild look on her face; then she starts babbling about how she knew this was how I knew about what was going to happen, but that she needed to touch it for herself to make sure it was real."

"And then she handed you the paper?"

"Well, yeah."

"Then why are you so sure she was trying to take the paper?"

"Come on Marissa I spent the whole day saving kids just like her; spoiled, self absorbed little brats that never think about anyone but themselves, RC just covers it up better."

"Listen to yourself Gary; do you really think she's like that? Honestly?"

Gary stopped in mid tirade to consider what Marissa had just asked. Did he believe that Ruth was like that? Maybe not, but he hadn't thought she was the kind of person to ambush the paper either. "I don't know Marissa; I really don't."

Marissa just shook her head at her friend; she hoped he hadn't screwed up too badly. "I almost forgot, she said to tell you to just tear up the note."

"Note, what note?"

"She didn't hand you a note?"

"No, she just handed me the paper, then she ran."

"Maybe it's still in the hall; anyway, when you find it, just tear it up" and with that, Marissa headed downstairs.

Gary was still standing in the middle of his room. 'Well' he thought 'I may as well find the darn note'. The hallway was the obvious place to look. He saw a coat on the floor, back near the guest room. He picked it up and saw a flash of white 'that must be the note' he thought. Then he saw that it hadn't just been the coat lying in the hallway, he bent close looking at the other thing that had been left. "Oh boy" Gary said, a vague feeling of dread forming in his gut. It was a painting, a painting of Gary and Toni from the play. The style was very different from what he had seen of hers in the past. This one was almost photographic in its realism, with the paint adding texture to their faces. As he looked, not quite daring to touch it, the vague feeling in his gut was congealing into a very real pang of guilt. She had shocked him, but that in itself didn't justify the things he had said. He picked up the note and looked at it with real trepidation. Gary came within an ace of doing exactly what Ruth had asked of him, but curiosity won out in the end and he opened it. He stood there reading, and when he had finished, he almost wished he had just torn it up.

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She had it now, the entire painting was clear in her mind. She knew exactly what she wanted to present, and the techniques that she would use. Now all she had to do was get mentally ready. For her, that meant the right music. Realizing its importance to her art early on, Ruthie had an extremely eclectic music collection, everything from Bach to the Beastie Boys, from Robert Johnson to Run DMC. That way, finding the right tunes wouldn't be a struggle, no matter what mood she was looking for. She made her selections and sat and listened and absorbed; soon she would be ready.

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"Marissa, I need help."

"What's the matter Gary?"

"I'll tell you what the matter is; I'm an idiot, that's what the matter is."

"Not following you."

"I found the note."

"Did you tear it up?"

"No, but I wish I had; but brilliant me, I read it instead."

"That doesn't sound good, what does it say?"

"Just listen: _Dear Mr. Hobson; Sorry if I gave you too much of a shock, I guess I'm just not that subtle a person. I wanted to start off by thanking you again for saving my life. I realize how inadequate just saying thanks is, so I hope my little present will help even the score just a little bit._"

"Present" Marissa asked.

"A painting of Me and Toni from the play."

"Oh Boy"

"_I cannot even imagine the pressure you are under every day, keeping people alive that don't even know they're in danger, the agony if you miss even one, the constant demand, because people are always doing stupid things. There is no way I could do what you do, nor do I want to try. But what I do want to do is offer you my comfort. I can't do what you do, but I can help you do it. If you ever need to talk, and either Marissa or Toni isn't around, you can talk to me. I promise to never pass on what I know about you, and though I can't bear your burden, I can help you bear it, if you want me to. Do not feel obligated to me for any reason, if you never talk to me about the paper, that's OK; but please be assured that I'm here if you need me, no matter what._

_Sincerely;_

_Ruth Camden_

_P.S. Thanks again, that was a great flying tackle._

There was silence in the office for about ten seconds; finally Marissa said "I've got to hand it to you Gary, when you screw up, you don't go halfway."

"Thanks Marissa, ya got anything constructive to say."

"Yeah, I'd say you owe someone an apology, and you better do it before her brother finds out and comes gunning for your butt."

"I know, but how the heck can I apologize for what I said?"

"I don't know; all I know is you better find a way, fast."

"Yeah, yeah; but not right now, I've got to stop someone from falling in front of the El over by Merchandise Mart."

"Be careful, and try not to get anyone else mad at you."

"Funny Marissa, but I think I've already exceeded my quota for the day."

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Gary had succeeded in saving the guy, a rather high strung realtor; unfortunately the guy was so grateful that he wanted to sell Gary a house, at a discount of course. Gary finally lost him in the press, but it took a bit of doing. He was still thinking about this morning and decided that just walking over and groveling was his best bet. He headed for Ruthie's studio, rehearsing what he was going to say. His next save wasn't until two thirty, a fire at a sorority house, so he figured he had time.

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Teressa didn't know how to handle it, Camden had never listened to this kind of stuff before, at least not for more than ten minutes, but five straight hours of Metallica, Megadeath, the Sex Pistols and everything else loud and angry that she could think of. Something bad must have happened, and now Ruthie was dealing with it, Teressa only wished that she didn't force everyone else to deal with it as well, but everyone in the building knew what happened when you interrupted Camden in one of these moods. So Teressa just gritted her teeth and waited for the storm to abate. She was wondering if she should not even be trying to work when she saw Gary go by. "Gary, what are you doing here?"

"It's a long story, but I need to talk to RC."

"Not today"

"It's important, he what's with the earbleeding music?"

"That's Camden, come here for a second and I'll try to explain." They retreated to Teressa's studio, and closed the door, cutting off the worst of the sound. "Now this is gonna sound a bit weird, so stick with me. The reason Camden is so good isn't her technique, although that's brilliant, it's because she gets so much emotion into her work. She does that through music. She'll listen to the kind of music that provokes the emotion she's looking for, and then when she's; I dunno, full I guess, she stops the music and starts painting. Somehow she channels the emotion that she's full of into her work. Let me tell you a story. She had a boyfriend when she first came here, and during her sophomore year, he came all the way from California for a formal, God was she thrilled. Anyway, in the middle of the dance, the creep dumps her, seems as though he has a girl back at Stanford or wherever. She comes back here and listens to the most depressing, make you want to slit your wrist music I've ever heard; for twenty four straight hours. Then she stops listening and starts painting, forty eight hours later she comes out of her studio with one paint covered formal dress and the painting that won the Guggenheim for that year. She had focused all of that pain and depression into the painting somehow, and it was incredible. So you could say that what she's doing now is just charging the batteries before she goes to work."

"That's great and all, but I really do need to talk to her."

"Gary, you don't interrupt when she's working, you just don't do it. I'll tell her you stopped by when she's done, but until then, she wouldn't come out or stop even for the Rapture."

"I'll just be extra charming" Gary said with a smile turned to go "and thanks for the information."

"Your welcome, but I'm telling you, leave Camden alone or you'll be sorry."

"Thanks for the warning" Gary said over his shoulder as he headed for the source of the sound. He found the door easily enough, her name was on it and everything. He knocked and said "Ruth, we need to talk." Hearing no reply he turned the knob and opened the door.

He had about half a second to register what the studio looked like before he caught a face full of purple tempra paint, shot from a Super Soaker. Ruthie kept it full and pressured up to discourage interruptions, so far, no one had tried to interrupt her twice. As Gary was clearing his eyes, he heard the sound of her pumping the pressure up for a second shot. Thinking Teressa was right; Gary withdrew his head and closed the door. He headed back to Teressa's studio, trying to clear the paint from his eyes. When he got there, she just started laughing "I tried to tell you" she gasped out between her bouts of laughter.

"Yeah you did" Gary said "I guess it's just my day to be an idiot. You said you'd let her know that I need to talk to her whenever she gets done?"

"Yeah Gary, not a problem."

"Thanks Teressa, I guess I'd better get cleaned up." And with that, he left.


	13. A Little Attitude, Please

THE LEGACY – CHAPTER 12

Being covered in purple paint had actually proven to be a benefit for Gary. When he had gone charging into the Sorority house carrying a fire extinguisher and covered in purple paint, the girls just passed it off as some Fraternity prank, and didn't panic. It also disguised him sufficiently so no one could give an accurate description. He finally returned to McGinty's and passed on to Marissa what had happened at the school. It would be hard just waiting for Ruthie to be accessible, but neither of them saw any other option.

There was no word from Teressa the next day, but even if there was, Gary was way too busy to talk. He was on the go from the first minute to the last; if he didn't know better he'd almost swear the paper was punishing him.

He started at seven in the morning at the farmer's market, keeping a guy from buying some peaches that had been contaminated in shipment. Unfortunately that meant he had to deal with the irate buyer and the irate seller, neither of which believed him until he found all the dead mice that had eaten some of the fruit.

Then he was at the middle school where he stopped two kids from breaking another kid's skull as they tried to give him a swirllee. Of course the assistant principal saw him leaving after he had sent the boys back to class, and gave Gary the third degree as to what he had been doing there in the first place. Gary figured he would still be there if a fight hadn't broken out and distracted the principal long enough for Gary to make his escape. Then he was off running again; trying to keep a family from buying a boat that was going to blow up when they tried to move it. As he was headed towards the slip, which was in Burnham Park harbor by Meigs Field, he wondered idly if the paper was punishing him. He had gotten a vague but insistent feeling now and again, that whoever controlled the paper put him in contact with unpleasant people when he had been unpleasant. Kind of giving him a taste of his own medicine as it were. Now Marissa said he was just being paranoid when he talked about this possibility, but Gary honestly did wonder. Could it somehow manipulate the situations so that the people he saved were less inclined to be gracious or polite because of earlier instances in their day; after all someone got him the newspaper a day ahead of time, so minor tweaking like that was certainly in the realm of possibility. Gary walked into McGinty's an hour later, flustered and angry. The first person he saw as he headed towards the bar was Teressa. "Any news" he asked as he waved for Brent to bring him a beer.

"Sorry Gary, all I can tell you is that the music stopped after about ten hours, so at least she's painting, God only knows how long she'll be though."

"Doesn't she sleep?"

"Camden, not while she's inspired, I saw her work fifty four straight hours once."

"This is driving me crazy, I want to make things right, but she won't let me get close."

"I know you do Gary" Teressa could tell that there was something more here than an employer/employee spat, but she couldn't figure out what it was. Then a thought occured to her, it was absurd but insistent. Maybe, she thought, the problem was that Camden and Gary weren't employer/employee. The very idea infuriated her, and even though she told herself how unlikely that was, the idea refused to go away.

Gary just nodded and the girl wandered back to the kitchen to check on an order. He was looking over the bar when a voice behind him asked "anything new today?"

"Geez Marissa, just make me jump out of my skin why don't ya" Gary groused while Marissa giggled, it wasn't often she caught her partner completely unaware.

"As a matter of fact there is something new, I now own a boat."

"A boat, what are you gonna do with a boat?"

"I don't know, do boat things I guess."

"Well if you don't know, why'd you buy the thing?"

"Because it was the only way to keep a family from Oshkosh from getting blown up."

"What, you had to sail out to save them, that's what the Coast Guard is for."

"I know that; no, they were gonna buy the boat and it was gonna blow up when the fired up the engines in the harbor."

"Why didn't you just tell them that?"

"I did, several times and in several ways, but they were still gonna buy the stupid thing and the seller was getting ready to club me with a wrench, so I just bought it."

"Do I even want to know how much it cost?"

"Just twenty bucks."

"Twenty, come on Gary, you couldn't buy an inflatable boat for twenty dollars."

"No, but twenty bucks was how much I put on 'Sailor's Pride' in the third at Gulf Stream."

"Sailor's Pride huh."

"I did catch the irony. Now I just need to have the thing fixed and then I can sell it, or give it away, whichever."

"You don't want to keep it, cruise the lake or something. Maybe take Toni out on a moonlight sail, it is a sailboat; right?"

"Yeah, it's a sailboat, but I'd be lucky to get ten feet without killing myself or someone else."

"So learn, you could use a hobby."

"Like this thing would ever let me have time to learn to sail or to cruise somewhere" he said, waving the paper around. "This thing hates me anyway."

"Not again Gary, please. For once and for all the paper doesn't hate you or punish you or anything like that, it's simply your attitude that dictates how you deal with what's inside."

"You really believe that?"

"Yes Gary, I really believe that; change your attitude a bit, and I'm betting that things will be better."

"OK Marissa, I'll try, but if tomorrow is horrible, you owe me."

"What will I owe you?"

"I'm not sure yet, I'll let you know."

Marissa just smiled at her friend and went back to her desk. As she sat, she ran her fingers over the painting that Ruth had given her. It still amazed her at times how thoughtful the girl had been. She also thought that if Gary was correct, unlikely but possible; he deserved to be punished for what he had said to her.

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Ruthie was exhausted, she had been up for 47 straight hours, but the painting was done. She looked at it, her eyes almost refusing to focus. 'Dammit' she thought 'I think it's the best work I've ever done'. The reason this didn't please her was because of what she had decided to do with it. She had made this decision before she had ever started, and she wasn't going to back off it now; no matter how it had turned out. She had been aware of her fellow students coming and going, and working again once she had absorbed the music enough; but all of that had been peripheral awareness, flees jumping on an elephant for all it had distracted her. She was hungry, tired, paint spattered and feeling hollow inside. That was what she hated about painting the way she did, she poured all of her emotions out onto the canvas, but when she was done, there was nothing left inside her; 'Comfortably Numb' as Pink Floyd would put it. Moving as though she was eighty, she cleaned up her studio, leaving her painting up and uncovered to dry and shuffled off to her dorm to shower and eat and then sleep. Gary's secret was still inside her, but now it didn't burn the way it had, she didn't care and didn't want to help him in any way, at least that's what she told herself.

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The next day, Gary tried to change his attitude and face the day more positively, hoping that it would translate to an easier day with the paper. Opening the door to his loft and seeing Cat was probably the highlight of his day because as far as he was concerned, everything went downhill from there. As Cat sauntered in, Gary just stood in his doorway and thumbed through the paper. "Oh great" was all he had to say.

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Miles Stephens was late; he was always running late these days. Between Cynthia having a tough time recovering, and the new baby; Miles was felt like he was always running or exhausted or both. Now he was late again. He was going to run little Julie by his sister's so Cynth could get a little rest. He left his house with Julie in her car seat and everything she should need for the day, but when he got to the car he realized that he had forgotten his presentation. He set the car seat on the car and ran back inside. He emerged with his briefcase, his mind already turning over what he would say to the people from the DeLeat Company. Absently he got in and started up the engine, there was something nagging at his mind, but he figured he was so foggy from lack of sleep and that it was nothing. Rapidly he backed out of his driveway, only to hear a loud thump from the rear of the car. He couldn't believe it; some moron had just hit his car with a snowball. He paused for a second, still not quite believing what had just happened when 'THUMP', another one hit the BMW. This was just too much, on top of everything else, he picked up a heavy flashlight from under the passengers seat and got out to talk to this Kerry Wood wanna-be.

"What the hell's the matter with you buddy" Miles said as he exited the car.

"Your daughter" the man replied.

"Yeah, what about her?"

"She's on the roof of your car" was the man said and Miles stopped. Sure enough, Julie was still sleeping in her car seat on top of the BMW, just a little angel in the snow. Miles just took a deep breath as the enormity of what had almost happened hit him. He turned to thank the guy that had warned him, but he was already gone. Carefully, as though he was handling glass, he pulled the car seat and it's cargo off his roof and strapped his daughter into the back seat. Slowly and carefully, he headed off to his sister's.

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Mrs. Steinwalter had lived in the neighborhood for almost all of her 68 years. She knew it and loved it, but lately things had started to change, and not for the better. People didn't know their neighbors anymore, and didn't watch out for each other anymore. Mrs. Steinwalter had even started locking her doors at night, something she had never done before. Kevin and Angela both had asked her to move somewhere else, Highland Park and Elmhurst had both been suggested, but this was the only place she knew, and she thought it a bit much for children to be telling their mother where and how to live. So she had stayed and watched the neighborhood change.

She was walking back from the market on the corner. She had picked up a roast and some new potatoes from Mr. Cho the grocer. Her Eli had fought in the Pacific during World War II, and would probably have some things to say about her taking her money to an Asian shopkeeper, but Eli wasn't there, and Mr. Cho was a pleasant man. She usually didn't buy a whole roast because it was just her, but Kevin and Marcy and their boys were coming over for dinner. She knew Kevin would bring up moving again, well, she figured she'd listen and shake her head just like always.

She was thinking about putting her son in his place for his cheek at giving her advice when someone called out to her "got some spare change lady"? She turned and looked, there was a youngish man (she figured him to be no more than twenty five) who looked miserable and near to frozen. Mrs. Steinwalter felt sorry for the lad, but she had never been one to put up with pan-handlers.

"I'm sorry young man, but I don't."

"Sorry to hear that lady" the man had said, pulling out a knife "I don't believe you".

Mrs. Steinwalter should have been afraid, but she wasn't. This was mostly due to the fact that she simply refused to believe that this was happening on her street in her neighborhood. The young man was waving the knife and moving towards her warily, almost stalking her when another voice said "move it along punk".

The young man in front of her whirled around andMrs. Steinwalterlooked up to see another man, a little younger than her Kevin, carrying a baseball bat and glaring at the man with the knife. "Time for you to get lost" he said.

The younger man just gave a feral grin "you gonna make me, pops".

"If I have to, yeah" the other man said, with a chilling smile of his own. "I've had a really bad couple of days and beating the snot out of a little creep like you would help me work out a couple of issues."

The grin on the younger man's face faltered, this guy wasn't acting right, the dude was supposed to be scared; not looking like he was wanting to fight. The kid with the knife straightened a bit out of his crouch and shook his head, like he was trying to reset his brain or something. He caught a blur of movement out of the corner of his eye, then the lights went out.

Mrs. Steinwalter just looked at the little man on the ground. That was a nice roast that Mr. Cho had sold her, and three pounds made a nice impact. The other man put his bat down and took the knife and threw it down the storm drain by the sidewalk. "Thanks for your help ma'am" he said, smiling politely. He was polite and handsome Mrs. Steinwalter thought, maybe she should invite him for dinner as well, after all Angela might be there and she was needing someone to help her get over the divorce.

"No, thank you young man; if you hadn't distracted him, I wouldn't have had the chance to hit him. Master Chung said to go for right behind the ear, and it worked just like he said it would."

"Master Chung" the man asked looking a bit confused.

"Oh I take self defense classes twice a week down at the corner dojo; it gives me something to do besides knit."

The man gave her a wide grin "I'm sure it does ma'am" he said. And with that he picked up his bat and jogged off in the other direction.

Mrs. Steinwalter started back towards her home, she had noticed the wedding ring on the man's finger, so asking him to dinner wouldn't have done at all. As she climbed her front stoop, she reluctantly admitted to herself that maybe, just maybe Kevin had a point. She resolved to listen a bit harder tonight while he was going on about moving.

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Dean Fenton had been trying to get Melissa to go out with him for almost three months. Both in their mid twenties and never married, they worked at Bartuzie and Burkes law firm, she was a legal secretary and he did investigative work for them. She had been reluctant to agree, she said, because she was getting over a long term relationship that had ended badly. But his persistence had finally paid off and she had agreed to lunch at 'Terriers', so long as they went dutch. Since pay-day was three days away, that had been fine with him. They had ordered and were just starting to open up to each other when there was a commotion from near the kitchen.

Dean just looked at Melissa and shrugged, some people just had to add drama to their lives he mused. She just shook her head and quirked an eyebrow, indicating that she was pretty much in agreement with him. That was what he found so scary, that they could communicate so well without words, almost as though they truly knew what the other was thinking. As the waitress brought their salads out, the commotion resumed. Dean could see a man in his mid to late thirty's yelling at the staff in the kitchen.

"I don't care if it gives a unique flavor while keeping the lettuce green longer, you just don't put peanut oil on food like that, people are allergic to that kind of thing." The man started yelling more about peanut oil as the maitre D was struggling to throw him out, but Dean wasn't listening 'peanut oil' he thought to himself, why was that important.

Almost before he was realizing what he was doing, his hand shot across the table, and grabbed Melissa's just as she was about to but her first bite of salad in her mouth. She looked at him, eyes wide, not understanding why he had grabbed her.

"Didn't you tell me once that you were allergic to peanuts" he asked quietly.

Still a little scared, she just gave a brief nod. "Did you hear what that guy just said" he asked her "he said the lettuce had peanut oil on it."

Now her eyes were wide with fear; Dean released her hand and she put the forkful of salad back in the bowl. "Sorry" he said, looking a bit ashamed "I didn't mean to startle you".

Melissa took his hand in both of hers "thank you" she said "if you hadn't, I might be dead now". She leaned forward, and gave him a brief kiss. She almost laughed at how furiously he was blushing and thought to herself that maybe she could finally get over Steve and the emotional damage he had done to her.

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Mike Veldman hated walking past the Milner's house. The Milner's were nice enough and Samantha was pretty cool he thought, well for a girl, he amended; but he hated the Milner's dog. It was a huge, hairy brute name 'Sweetums', which Mike thought was the biggest load of BS he had ever heard. If there was anything sweet about this behemoth that looked like a cross between a Rottweiler and a Saint Bernard, neither he nor anyone not named Milner had ever found it. All the guys on the street hated that dog, and the dog seemed to hate them right back.

Mike was walking home late because of that old bag Mrs. Kettlesmith. She had been so sure that Mike was the one shooting the spitwads that she had made him stay after school and clean gum from under the desks, which was just really gross. What stank about the whole thing was that it had been Kenny Prothro that had been actually doing stuff, Mike had just kept quiet about it; rotten old bag.

He was just thinking about getting home and somehow talking his way out of the extra chores that him mom would heap on him for being bad in school, when he heard a loud, snarling growl, and the sound of running feet. He turned towards the growl and saw the Milner's dog racing towards the fence, without his lead. Everyone, Mike included, knew that without that lead Sweetums could clear the fence with ease. He knew he should be running, but his feet seemed frozen to the spot, as though he was standing in wet cement. Suddenly he felt himself being grabbed and lifted into the air. Someone had a hold of him, and was running away from the Milner's dog. Sweetums did indeed clear the fence easily Mike saw. It was a little tricky to see because of the twilight and being bounced along on some stranger's hip. He felt the guy pause for a second and saw him drop a package of hot dogs on the ground before he sped up again.

Suddenly Mike was flying through the air again, and he thumped down in the Thurman's front yard. He looked up to see Sweetums pretty much inhaling the hot dogs, then looking up to find his main course for the evening.

Mike turned to tell the guy to run, but saw that he had a gun in his hand. The stranger was sighting along the barrel just as Sweetums was starting in their direction. Mike saw his finger tighten on the trigger, but instead of a loud bang (Mike had shot 22's in the Boy Scouts) he just heard a high pitched pop.

He looked back and saw Sweetums take two steps, and then drop to the ground. Mike looked back at the man with the gun "did ya kill him" he asked.

The man just gave him a hard look, then answered "no I didn't kill him, it's a tranquilizer gun, he'll just sleep for a while." The man came over and helped Mike to his feet "you OK getting home" he asked.

Mike just nodded, this was gonna make the coolest story when he got to school the next day. He headed off towards his house, his mind back to figuring out how to talk his way out of the extra chores, when he turned back to thank the guy with the dart gun. But the man was gone. Shrugging, Mike walked up the driveway and into his house.

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Gary walked into McGinty's just bone tired. Four big saves and scattered all over the city; yep, the paper hated him. He sat down at the bar and waved to Crumb, who pulled Gary a beer without asking. On the big screen, the Bulls were in the process of being routed by the Pacers, typical Gary thought as he sipped his beer.

"How'd it go today Gary" Marissa asked.

"Oh just swell" Gary answered sarcastically "I nearly got stabbed, beaten and chewed up by a dog the size of a Clydesdale. Oh, and I got tossed out of a restaurant and my wife won't be home till Saturday. How was your day Marissa?"

"Not bad, Brent found a guy willing to fix your boat for free, he just wants a recommendation and three free meals, and Teressa was looking for you."

Gary perked up at this, if Teressa was looking for him then maybe there was news on RC. He turned around and scanned the bar, looking for the girl.

"One more thing Gary, Ruth's brother was in today, but he left rather abruptly, you might want to avoid him for a while."

"Yeah Marissa, I'm not surprised he's upset. Thanks for the warning."

As he was finishing his beer, he saw Teressa. He walked over to her while keeping an eye on the bar; it surprised him how well they had done with this place. "Marissa said you were looking for me."

The girl didn't look up "her studio's open again, which means she's finished and probably catching up on her sleep right now, but she should be there tomorrow, it's Friday, and she's always in her studio on Friday."

"Thanks Teressa" Gary said, and he turned to walk away.

"I don't know what happened between the two of you" she said "but I've never seen Camden this upset before. Her brother came by looking for her, and then came back after he had visited her in her dorm. He said that she cried for about twenty minutes. You've been like a father to me Gary, but if I find out you've done anything to hurt her, I'll turn you in in a second."

Gary just sighed "It's nothing like that Teressa; I just said some things I shouldn't and made some very foolish accusations without thinking, I could never do anything like what you're suggesting, hell Toni would kill me herself if I did."

Teressa just nodded, but as Gary headed towards his loft he realized that she hadn't looked at him once. As far as he was concerned it was just the capper on an awful day.


	14. Sorry Says it All

THE LEGACY – CHAPTER 13

Ruthie figured that technically this wasn't breaking and entering because Teressa had left a window unlocked so she wasn't breaking in. She had to deliver her painting to Gary, but didn't want anyone else to see it;a midnight delivery seemed like the best solution. She slid the window that Teressa had marked upwards and climbed in. She had to go around to the door to get the painting because it was too large to come in the same way that she had. She closed and locked the window, then went around to the kitchen entrance and opened the door as quietly as possible.

She brought her painting in and closed the door behind her; she didn't turn on any lights. All her years of sneaking around the Camden house had taught her that you get caught every time you use a flashlight, so she had gotten used to getting around in the dark. She was making her way through the office when a voice came out of the darkness "is there something I could do for you Ruth?"

She didn't make a sound, she was proud of that, but her heart started doing a good imitation of a jack-hammer in her chest. "Marissa" she said "this isn't what you're probably thinking."

"Oh" she said "and what am I probably thinking?"

"That I came here to trash the place or something like that."

"No, I wasn't thinking that, you always seemed like someone who was a lot less direct than most, trashing the entire restaurant just to get back at Gary wouldn't be your style. I was thinking you were leaving something for him, something that would more adequately express your anger than simple words, am I right?"

"Yes" the young woman said "I was gonna leave the painting I did outside his door, so it would be the first thing he saw in the morning."

"Can I assume it shows him in a less than flattering light?"

"That would certainly be one way to interpret the work" Ruthie answered.

Marissa sighed, seeming to come to a decision "just leave it with me; I'll see that it gets where it needs to be."

Ruthie was astounded; she knew that Marissa and Gary had been friends for the longest of times, almost closer than siblings, and now she was offering to help with something that would bring her friend pain. "Why would you help me? Don't get me wrong, I appreciate it, but this is between me and Gary, you don't want to become mixed up in it."

"Yes I do, you're both friends, and I need to understand, I've heard what Gary has to say, I'd hear your side if you'd tell it."

"It started my freshman year; I had gone to sketch some statues. . . . . So Ruthie spilled everything, her suspicions, her evidence and her conclusions. She talked about going to the _Sun-Times_ and what she learned there, about talking with Diaz. She told of her wanting to do something to help, but not being sure about how to go about it. She recounted the conversation with her father, his advice and her resolution to help Gary, and her way of approaching him. It all came out while Marissa just sat there in the dark, like a Sphinx; just listening.

When Ruthie had finished Marissa still just sat, the silence drew out like a blade until, finally, Marissa heaved a sigh and said "I see, thank you Ruth; you head on back and like I said, I'll make sure your painting gets to where it needs to be."

"Thanks Marissa" the younger girl said "I miss you, you know", then she turned and left out the back door, and headed back to school.

Marissa sat there in the dark of McGinty's office, she heard the door close and the outside lock fasten, but still she sat and didn't move except for a slight tremble in her shoulders. She could empathize with the young woman. Marissa knew what it was like, wanting to help and having that offer thoughtlessly rejected. Slowly the trembling eased and her emotions were once again under her control. She stood and lifted the painting, it was pretty big, then wraith-like, she moved through the bar and up to the loft; making no more sound than a breeze. She propped it outside Gary's door so it would be the first thing he saw when he opened the door at six thirty. She went back downstairs and stretched out on the couch. She loved Gary, but knew that there were times when he took the people around him for granted. Maybe Ruth's present would remind him of the price of such an attitude. "I miss you too, Ruth" the woman whispered, and then drifted off to sleep.

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Meow . . . . . THUMP

"Look for more snow today. ." Gary's hand came down on the alarm. He rolled over, trying to find Toni, but she wasn't there. His eyes shot open as he remembered that she was coming back Saturday. She had been in Pontiac over New Years, trying to reconcile with her family, he hoped it was going well, but she hadn't exactly been 'Chatty Cathy' the few times she'd called. Gary missed her, sometimes it surprised him just how huge a part of his life she had become. After all, he was not an emotional open book, as Marissa reminded him; or at least she used to. Cat was expressing his impatience at being ignored in the hallway, Gary groaned and got out of bed, as he headed towards the door, he hoped that the paper was light today; he really wanted to see RC and try to make amends for what had happened between them. He opened the door, and his eyes were immediately assaulted. It took a second to register what it was he was looking at; when he finally figured it out his heart sank, it didn't look like RC was in a very forgiving mood.

He hauled both the paper and the painting in and closed the door, for once he wasn't interested in what the paper had to say, he was staring at the painting in spite of himself, it was the angriest thing he had ever seen. The background was a mottled red and purple. When he looked at it Gary almost felt like if you could give hate a color, this would be it. Filling in around the central subject were rolled up newspapers, but where the masthead went, the words 'Screw You' had been substituted, but not typed. No, the words were in a bright red and looked as though they had been cut into the paper with a razor. Not surprisingly, the central figure was him, in triplicate. Ruthie had rendered his face three times, the middle face looked the most like him, but he could read every negative trait and emotion in this face. Gary could see his arrogance, his condescension and most of all, his selfishness stamped all over the rendering of his face. The right face simply made him look like an idiot, the kind that struggled with adding two and two together. The left face was the masterpiece though, it was anger. It was Gary's face, even his mother would recognize him, but somehow Ruthie had just morphed his features a little bit and rendered it a living portrait of mindless rage, raving and snarling. Looking at that face made him remember a line from Stevenson's 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'; "He must be deformed somewhere, he gives a strong feeling of deformity, although I couldn't specify the point". The third face of Gary showed the beast that is in all of us, just under the skin. 'This is how I appeared to her' he thought. He finally turned away, disgusted with himself. He picked up the paper, wanting to find something, anything to take his thoughts away from the canvas behind him.

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'Heart Attack in Whirlpool' was the only headline he saw that merited his special attention. Helen Vandemeer, thirty five and single, was going to die of a heart attack at the Melrose Park Spa for Women. She would fall asleep in the whirlpool and the heat would aggravate an unsuspected heart defect, causing her death. 'Spa for Women' how the heck was he supposed to get in there, no matter he thought Toni could, then he remembered; Toni wasn't there, Marissa couldn't do it and Meredith was at a seminar; crap. Unfortunately there was a grand total of one female in Chicago that knew about the paper and could pull off this save, but she wasn't talking to him. Well, at least it wasn't supposed to happen until two this afternoon, there was time. 'No time like the present to make peace' Gary thought and went downstairs to ask Marissa for advice.

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For the first time in four years, Ruthie was homesick. Something happened to her on the way back from McGinty's, as though leaving the painting meant leaving her love of Chicago as well. Right now she just wanted to be on some golden sand beach with the endless Pacific breaking in front of her. 'Damn' she thought 'I just need to get my head back in the game'. Then suddenly, with a gleam in her eye she picks out a CD, picks a tune and pushes the repeat button. She sets up a new canvas to the sound of 'California Dreamin' and starts to paint.

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"So how did you like your present" Marissa asked as soon as Gary opened the door to the office.

"You knew about that" Gary asked, a bit surprised at his partner.

"I was here last night when she brought it in. We had quite a talk, well she talked and I listened. I gotta tell you Gary, when you say the wrong things, you don't go half way. I don't think there's anything you could have said to make her angrier and more humiliated."

"Well, if you saw the painting that bit of information kinda comes across."

"What does it look like?"

Gary described the painting to her, as well as the feelings it generated in him; Marissa found it amazing that Ruth could put so much emotion into simple paint and canvas. Eventually Gary got to the paper and telling Marissa what he had to do. "How do I apologize to the girl, and at the same time ask her to pick up a burden that she says she doesn't want?"

"You think Ruth going in there is the only way to save this woman?"

"No, but I think it's the best way."

"Well there you go, do your best to apologize, and if it falls through, then go with the back up plan."

"I suppose" Gary grimaced "I better get going before I lose my nerve."

"Good luck Gary" Marissa said, and then as an afterthought "don't forget flowers Gary, you never apologize to a woman without flowers."

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Ruthie smelled the flowers before she heard the knock. She was pretty sure who it was, but she didn't hesitate to say "come in"; surprisingly she didn't pick up her Super-Soaker. She heard the door open as she pushed the pause button. She just stood in the middle of the room, facing the far wall; she didn't trust herself enough to face him yet.

"Uhhh RC, is this a bad time?"

"No worse than any other Mr. Hobson" she replied.

'Well at least she didn't shoot me or throw me out' Gary thought, 'that's a step in the right direction'. "Could I speak to you for a moment?"

Ruthie sighed "sure". Just keep it short she thought to herself. She was surprised at how his presence only made her sad now, all of her anger had been spent.

"I just wanted to tell you how sorry I am for the things I said to you. I was an idiot and I jumped to idiotic conclusions, and I accused you of things that I know you would never do. I don't expect you to trust me right away, but I do hope that in time you'll be able to at least look at me when I'm around."

She smiled at that; "was that a rehearsed speech or did you just wing it?"

"The idiot and idiotic conclusions were a prepared bit, I just worked it in" he replied, and she could hear the smile in his voice. She had noticed during the play how expressive Gary's voice could be, and now that she was listening she could hear the pain in it, underlying what he said.

"You can set the flowers on the table over there" she said, indicating a table in the corner. Gary was a bit relieved, but the girl still refused to look at him.

Ruthie heard him put the bouquet down and then retreat back to the doorway. "I also need to ask you something, a couple of things actually. The first is pretty standard which is please don't tell anyone what you know. I don't even want to think about what would happen if the paper became some kind of general knowledge."

"I promised I wouldn't and that still holds, what's number two?"

"Well, I know you said you didn't want this, but I need help; I need you to help me with the paper."

"In general"

"No, in about five hours."

Ruthie finally turned to look at him, surprise on her face "after everything you said, you want me to forgive you and help you out; just like that?"

"You don't have to forgive me, but I could really use your help."

"Why me?"

"Because you're a woman"

"Huh, why does that matter?"

"Because in five hours a woman is gonna have a heart attack in the middle of a women's health spa, someplace that I would be a bit conspicuous."

The young woman gave him a very calculating glance "how much of you being here is because you feel bad and how much is because you need my help?"

Gary honestly considered the question, "I would have come over to apologize today regardless, this just makes it more urgent" he finally said.

Ruthie just nodded "fair enough, I'll help you out, but I'm not sure if I've forgiven you just yet, understand."

Gary gave a little smile "understood" he said; "just meet me down at McGinty's about eleven, we'll work out what to do on the way over, and don't forget a bathing suit."

"Bathing suit, why?"

"Well if you're gonna be in a spa, ya gotta look like you belong there, right?"

"I suppose" Ruthie said "but just for the record, I hate wearing bathing suits."

"From California, but you hate bathing suits, that's a bit of a contradiction. I figured you'd have grown up on a beach somewhere and not worn anything else."

"What makes you think that" the girl asked.

Gary just pointed at the canvas; it was the beginning of a beautiful beach and a golden sunset. "No reason" Gary said with a grin, and with that, he left.

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Gary and Ruthie were driving towards Melrose Park; Ruthie was reading the article about the woman who was going to die.

"I can't believe you trust me with this?"

"I know you care, that's important; you're smart and resourceful and an actress and I know you don't care what other people think of you, that's a plus."

Ruthie looked over at the man driving the van "I bet you have a lot of people in this city who think you've lost it."

"Probably more than my share" Gary laughed.

They pulled up and Gary handed her about two hundred bucks and she handed him the paper "good luck RC" he said.

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Helen was looking forward to this; she'd been feeling down ever since she and Anne had decided to be apart. Well today was just for her, she'd splurged for the entire treatment, hot rock massage, a facial, manicure and pedicure, mud, the works. 'I need a bit of indulgence' she thought. She eased herself into the whirlpool, she gasped a bit at first at the temperature of the water, then slowly she sank down into the bath, savoring the feel of the hot water on her tired muscles; 'who knows' she thought 'I might meet someone interesting'. She put her head back closed her eyes and totally relaxed.

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Ruthie had impatiently gone through the basics, and spa rules and such with ill concealed impatience. The ditz behind the desk seemed enchanted by the sound of her own voice because she kept droning on and on about the same things, over and over. Ruthie sat there wondering if the woman wasn't really a robot with a bad program. "Oh, and one final thing" the bubblehead was saying "the spa has two sections to it, one is clothing optional".

"Huh" Ruthie said "clothing optional".

"You know" the girl said with a wink.

'Great' Ruthie thought 'I wonder which side she's on?' "Actually" Ruthie began tentatively "I was looking for a friend of the woman that recommended this place to me, could you tell me which side Helen Vandemeer is on?"

"We're not supposed to discuss specific clients" the girl said with a rather pointed stare.

Steeling herself, Ruthie leaned forward, put her hands on the other woman's and looking into her eyes said "it's kind of important". Maybe creating a bit of drama in the receptionists mind would get her to talk.

The receptionist just gave a little smile and squeezed Ruthie's hands "she's on the clothing optional side; I believe she should be in the whirlpool right now."

"Thank you" Ruthie said, and got up to go to the changing room. She was trying to appear as normal as possible, but it wasn't easy. Ruthie hated being naked for any reason except bathing. She got to the changing room and quickly stripped and wrapped a towel around herself while no one was around. She wasn't shy, you couldn't grow up in a houseful of people the way she had and be shy, but she had never been comfortable with her body, especially when there weren't many clothes on it. A lot of people from school had told her she could be a real hottie if she 'advertised' a bit, heck even Lucy had made a similar comment. But Ruthie had never really believed it, to the point where she hadn't had a two piece bathing suit since grade school. Now here she was running around a spa naked trying to prevent a lady from dying. That last thought firmed the young girls resolve; she needed to focus on what needed to be done, not her personal comfort level.

She walked up to the whirlpool, dropped her towel and climbed in. She saw a rather attractive and very thin blonde relaxing against the back wall of the pool; the woman's head was the only thing out of the water. Ruthie tried to be as casual as possible, now that she was here, how do you tell someone that they're in danger of having a heart attack. The woman lifted her hand out of the pool and placed it on the side as well; Ruthie had a sudden inspiration and went with it. "Excuse me" she said to the other woman.

Helen looked up, she didn't know that she had company, but there was a rather pretty brunette in the whirlpool with her. She studied the girl's face for a moment; she looked to be at least ten years younger. 'I don't rob cradles' Helen thought, but looking was still OK. "Yes"

"I'm sorry to bother you, but I noticed your hands" Ruthie said "do you really think you should be here in your condition?"

Helen gave the girl a strange look 'condition' what the hell was she talking about. "Excuse me, what condition is that?"

"Your heart condition" Ruthie replied sincerely.

"What makes you think I have a heart condition" Helen asked, both curious and angry. This little snip was spoiling her day.

"Your nails, the cuticles are discolored, and the nails are kind of blocky; both of those are signs of a serious heart condition. Are you short of breath a lot lately?"

Helen was taken aback "yes" she answered, "but it's been a fairly stressful time for me. Are you a medical student or something?"

"No, but my brother and sister in law are both doctors. He's an OB/Gyn but she's a heart specialist, that's how I know about the nails being a tell-tale."

Helen was now a bit worried, her father had a series of heart attacks when he was younger, maybe it was genetic and had been passed on. The girl had certainly been right about the shortness of breath. "Please excuse me" Helen said and quickly stood up and left the tub.

Ruthie just nodded and sat back in the tub. She rested there for about five minutes, just to make it look good, then got up and went back to the changing room and put her clothes back on. She needed to find out from Gary if the lady was going to be OK. She hurried out the door and into the McGinty's van. Gary's expression told her all that she had needed to know. She had actually saved someone's life; even if it never happened again, all the pain she had gone through was worth it. Together the two headed back to McGinty's, Gary owed the girl a beer.

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There was a fourth player in this little drama, but none of the others knew about her. Janet Aguilera had been sitting in the steam room looking out the window in the door. She had seen the girl that she had met at the paper get into the whirlpool have a little chat and then leave. Janet was curious; you didn't plunk down the money that this place cost just for a ten minute soak, not if you were an art student at least. Janet had been coming here a year and a half and had never seen the girl here before, so why was she here now, and why the quick dip and an exit. The reporter's instincts were clanging like fire bells in her head, something interesting was up.


	15. Where Do I Go From Here

A/N Lamarquise, you are in no way, shape or form out of line. How else am I going to realize that some point I was trying to make didn't get through unless someone tells me. As a writer, if the motives of the characters are not understandable, and their actions make no sense to the reader; then I have failed in my job. I appreciate you taking the time and effort to point out areas that you felt were lacking. I believe that most of what you had to say will be addressed in this chapter with one exception. The character 'Ruth Camden' from 7th Heaven, is very headstrong and tempramental, that's why I thought Art School would be the perfect place for her instead of Nortwestern or the University of Chicago. The thing is, that for the character as she appears on the show,very little would be more insulting than to have an honest offer of help rejected, and then be told that the person would ratherhave no help from her at all; that she would be more of a hindrance than a help. At least that is my interpretation of her. That is one of the tricky things about writing fan fiction; the things you take from a character will be different from what anybody else takes from that same character. So while I would believe that she would react one way to a situation, based on my interpretation of hercharacter; you might find her actions totally unbelievable based on a different interpretation. In my long winded way, I hope this helps you understand why the characters behaved the way that they did in the story.

I would alsolike toagain thank those people thattake time to both read and review my little tale. Ican only hope that you are enjoying it as much as I am.

POE1911

* * *

THE LEGACY – CHAPTER 14 

Gary looked over at the young woman sitting next to him, she looked like she was gonna either puke or pass out any second now. "You OK RC" he asked.

She just nodded, still looking pretty grim. "I just wanted to apologize Gary, for snooping and surprising you like that, and for the painting, that was way over the top. Nothing you said merited that level of anger."

Gary was a more that a little shocked, he became even more so when he noticed a tear rolling down her cheek. "No you don't owe me anything kid, I forgot what kind of person you are and made some assumptions based on things that had nothing to do with you, I realized what a mistake I had made after I read your note, but then it was too late. Besides, you're an art school student, I expect over the top."

Ruthie gave a wan smile "I should've kept my mouth shut and just handed you the note, instead of standing there like a landed trout. I was always much better writing than speaking. Anyway, feel free to sell or destroy the painting, whatever you want to do; I don't ever want to see it again."

"Why not?"

"Cause it reminds me of how small I was, how I never thought about how you would feel having your secret found out by a stranger. I was so wrapped up in knowing what was going on that I didn't even consider how you would feel about the whole thing."

Gary thought for a moment "I think it's fair to say that neither of us did anything to be proud of. What do you say; we OK?"

Ruthie shot the older man a smile "yeah Gary, maybe not a hundred percent right now, but we're gonna be OK".

"But I'm keeping that painting" he blurted out.

"Why would you want to keep that hideous thing?"

"Two reasons, one is that Marissa thinks I take people for granted or ignore their need to help and the painting is a good reminder of the consequences of that. Believe it or not, this wasn't the first time I blew off someone that wanted to help with a little more force than I should."

Ruthie thought for a second "Marissa"?

"Marissa" Gary replied "more than once actually."

Ruthie just sat for a second, surprised at the revelation "what's the other reason" she asked.

"Hey it's a Ruth Camden original, I could probably get a couple hundred bucks for it one day, if you ever get any good that is" he said with a twinkle in his eye, having fun barbing the young woman.

Ruthie gaped at him in outrage for a second, then, seeing the look in his eyes, dissolved into laughter. Gary joined her, and they laughed all the way back to the bar.

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"So, how did it go" Marissa asked as the two walked into the office.

"Fine" they both said, but they said it differently; Gary sounded both proud and relieved, Ruth sounded scared and embarrassed.

"So tell me everything Ruth" the blind woman said.

Gary was surprised to see RC blush almost to her roots, they hadn't discussed the actual details of the save, only that the lady had been warned. "Well the first problem was that I was naked" the girl said, looking solidly at the floor. "She was in the whirlpool on the 'clothing optional' side of the spa. I sat down in the thing, and then just blanked, I had no idea what to say or how to approach her, then I saw her nails and remembered some of what Sarah had told me about heart disease"

"Who's Sarah" Marissa asked.

"My sister in law; Matt's wife. She's a doctor, and a heart specialist; so I passed on what I knew and she left. I was so relieved when she left that I couldn't move for about five minutes. I kept seeing her refusing to leave and then dropping dead while she was arguing with me. And you know what; it was worth every bit of pain and discomfort that I went through this past week." The young woman turned to Gary, "how do you handle that every day"?

"It's not so bad after a while, but you never really get over the fear that you might fail. It's just something that you have to live with, the idea that if you screw up, someone gets hurt or dies. Having friends helps a lot" Gary said this with a warm look at Marissa.

"I think you've got to be pretty special to begin with" Marissa said, with her face in Gary's direction, "otherwise everyone would be helping out and the paper wouldn't be needed."

Further discussion was cut off when Brent stuck his head in the office door "Hey Mr. Hobson, there's someone out here looking for RC, do you . . ." his voice faded as he realized who else was in the room with his bosses "RC" he yelled, and then came in and scooped the startled girl up in a hug and spun her around "where've you been kiddo, everyone's been missing you, you just kinda dropped off the face of the earth for a week?"

"Sorry Brent, I had some issues to deal with, but its cool now, who's looking for me?"

"Oh, a couple of reporters from the _Sun-Times_, they said something about a drawing."

Ruthie just rolled her eyes "I wish they'd call for once instead of just showing up and telling me they needed it yesterday." She heaved a sigh and looked back at Gary, "any problem talking more later" she asked.

"Nah" Gary said, shaking his head "besides I owe you a beer".

Ruthie just smiled at him "make sure it's a good one and not that junk you pawn off on the customers."

Gary and Marissa just laughed, and Ruthie and Brent went out into the bar.

When the pair of them were gone Gary turned to Marissa "she's a good kid, through and through; you know Marissa, I'm starting to wonder if I should have picked Lindsey."

"You're thinking you'd want to pass the paper on to Ruth?"

"Maybe, maybe I'm just second guessing myself."

"And maybe all of this has a purpose to it that you can't see."

"Maybe it does Marissa, maybe."

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When she saw who was looking for her, Ruthie almost went back into the office, but being raised in the Camden house rendered her nearly incapable of being that rude. So she walked up to the pair "you were looking for me" she asked.

The man stood up and extended his hand "Steve Phillips with features and this is Janet Aguilera."

"In investigative" Ruthie finished for him "we've met". Then she turned back to Steve "what can I do for you?"

Steve looked a bit confused but continued "we're working on a story about the McCormick's fire back in September, you remember that?"

"Yeah, wasn't there someone talking about turning it into some sort of urban mall and entertainment venue, like 'Water Tower Place' but with plays and stuff right."

'That's the place, anyway what we're doing is trying to look at what it would have been like if it had been done, what it would have done to the area."

"So that's why you've got features and investigative, now it makes sense."

Steve looked down at the silent Latina "we are kind of an odd pair for a story, that's true."

"So what do you want from me?"

"An artist's conception of what it would have looked like on the inside" Aguilera said, speaking for the first time.

"Didn't the designer do the interior renderings?"

"Just the mechanicals, the place burned before they could do anything more elaborate."

"Do you have the mechanicals or are you gonna describe it to me?"

"Just describe" Steve said "that is how you prefer to work, right."

Ruthie just nodded "hang on a sec while I get my stuff"; she walked back into the office, where she had stashed her sketchbook and pencils before the save. Ruthie would no more leave without her sketching materials than she would her pants.

"What's going on Ruth" Marissa asked.

"Just some stuff for the _Sun-Times_" the girl replied. She walked back out into the bar, picked up a Bell's Oberon Ale from Brent, who knew what she liked when she was working and walked back to the two reporters.

"OK" she said "picture in your mind what you want this drawing to look like. Once you've got it in your mind, just start telling me what you see, I'll do the rest."

Steve sat back with his eyes closed, but Janet leaned forward a bit "that's all you need" she asked.

"Yep, just that" Ruthie replied.

The young reporter just snorted in obvious disbelief "and when will this be done, next month"?

"Nope, you'll leave here with it" Ruthie said, sipping her beer.

Steve started talking and Ruthie started sketching. Janet sat silently, she had been asked to come along because of her involvement in the story, but when she recognized the artist she had vowed to herself to get some answers, and maybe a little payback.

Ruthie asked a couple of questions while she was working, about the building, its north/south orientation the neighborhood, stuff like that. Janet fielded these questions, but she was left wondering why the girl needed to know the answers to just draw a picture. Finally Steve stopped talking, Ruthie asked him a couple of questions as well, and then went back to her sketch.

"Would it bug you if I asked you a couple of questions" Janet asked the younger woman.

"Nah" Ruthie replied "I can multitask; besides now it's just filling in the details."

"So what were you doing at the Melrose Park Spa earlier today?"

Ruthie never flinched, she didn't even look up from her drawing, the sneaking she had done all her life had taught her a couple of very good rules, and one was 'always have a cover story, just in case'. "I was delivering a message for my brother, she needed some information today, and she wasn't answering her cell."

"Your brother?"

"Simon Camden, he's an actuary with Briney/Anderson, I guess he needed her to know something or some information she had; since he couldn't go into a place like that, I did." Ruthie frowned at her sketch a second, and then started up again.

"So you didn't understand what you told her?"

"No, I simply told her to call the office; I guess they worked everything out."

"And your brother sprang for the green to get you in; that place ain't cheap?"

"I guess he's on an expense account or something, they must have needed her pretty bad."

"I suppose, so why were you at the paper a month or so back?"

"I was researching the transition of things, specifically how the paper has changed in the way it's printed."

"How does that apply to art, you are an art student; right?"

"Transition is a major theme in art, and it was something I was interested in; and yeah, I'm an art student."

"So is this your last year?" Ruthie just nodded. "So what are your plans after graduation?"

"I'm not really sure yet, maybe something like this." With that Ruthie turned her sketch towards the two reporters. Surprisingly it managed to shut up the Latina, only Steve managed to find words.

"That's incredible" he said. "All that from just my description." His voice was filled with wonder.

"Thanks" Ruthie said, and sipped some more of her beer. "If you run it, just have the paper send the fee to the usual place, and if you need another, well you could probably find me here." She got up to head back to the office.

"Thanks" Steve said as both reporters stood up. Janet watched the girl head back to the office part of the bar. She didn't have much to say as she and Steve made their way back to the _Sun-Times_, Janet was playing the conversation over in her mind. Something was up, she was sure of it, but she had no idea what it was.

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Ruthie headed back to her dorm that evening; she had been talking with Teressa, and joking around with Crumb the whole time. For whatever reason, painting just didn't seem that important at the moment. 'What was she gonna do with herself' the reporter had asked. Ruthie hadn't answered because she honestly had no idea. What could she do, after all? She could sell a painting a year and live quite nicely off of that, except that would compromise her principles, something she refused to do. She could work for the _Sun-Times_ doing sketchwork, although that was a bit more precarious a living it didn't compromise anything. She thought back to earlier today, remembering the feeling she got when that woman, Ruthie could no longer remember her name, had gotten out of the tub and Ruthie realized that she had saved a life. Reluctantly she admitted to herself that she wanted that feeling again. She knew what she had told Gary, about not wanting the burden and stuff, but she was reconsidering. It wasn't as though she couldn't see the havoc that the paper had created in Gary's life, but for a moment or two, she had also glimpsed the rewards that came with the job, and that was something she wouldn't mind having. 'I want to do what Gary does' she admitted to herself, finally. 'That's what I want to do with my life, help people; but I want to do it directly'.

But how, that was the question wasn't it. She couldn't just take Gary's paper, or just ask him to hand it over to her when he got tired; somehow she knew that wasn't right, it wasn't the way the paper got passed on. She wasn't exactly sure how it happened, but she was sure that it wasn't some voluntary choice. So how to do what Gary does, but without knowing what will happen tomorrow. No way that could happen, she admitted to herself. What to do after school swirled around in the young girls head until she fell into a restless sleep.

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Ruthie was in her studio on Saturday, she had decided to work on her 'Beach at Sunset' picture that she had started the day before, It was looking pretty good, but after a steady diet of the 'Beach Boys' and 'Jan and Dean' all day, she was thinking about adding a surfer or two to the painting.

"Hey Camden, what's up" Ruthie heard from behind her.

"Not much Teressa, trying to decide if I want to add a surfer or two, or maybe something else. It needs something; I'm just not sure what."

"You wanna go get a couple of coffees with me and think about it?"

Ruthie turned to the other girl "sounds like a plan, just give me a couple of minutes to straighten up." The younger girl left, while Ruthie cleaned up her palette and brushes. Five minutes later, she and Teressa were out of the building and headed for the 'Adams Street Coffee Joint' which was about a block away from the Sears Tower. On the way the two friends talked about the holidays and the fact that it was Ruthie's last semester. They ordered their coffees and sat down, as far away from the live music as they could get, neither of their tastes ran to modern Jazz.

"Can I ask you a question Camden?"

"Sure"

"What was that dust up with you and Gary all about?"

Ruthie paused, she wasn't sure how to answer her friend, but she didn't want to lie either. "Well, mostly it was that Gary was keeping something secret, and I found out about it, and then I was kinda tactless in letting him know."

"It must have been pretty bad, the dust up I mean; I've never heard you listen to the kind of stuff you did. You must have been some kind of pissed."

"I was, Gary said some stuff that just wasn't true, he was mad, and when he just spouted off and I got angry."

That was something Teressa understood, she had seen Camden's anger once or twice, but never aimed at her thankfully; "so what was the secret?"

"That's where it gets tough, I think it's something you should know, but I promised Gary I wouldn't tell anyone." Ruthie thought for a moment "tell ya what, I'll hint and let's see if you can come up with it."

"You sure, I mean if Gary told you not to say anything, he's probably got a reason."

"Maybe he does, but I don't think you knowing will hurt anything. So, first hint what does Gary always have with him?"

"That's an easy one; he's always carrying the newspaper."

"Number two, have you ever been in a situation where Gary just happens to show up in the nick of time, knowing stuff he couldn't possibly know?"

"Sure, heck there was the time when he warned me and Marissa about my dad being outside waiting to jump us, and another time when I was being mugged and all the sudden Gary is there with a baseball bat and knocks the guy out". The girl thought for a second "what are you saying Camden?"

"Come on Walters, put it together."

"You're trying to tell me that somehow Gary knows what's gonna happen and somehow the paper has something to do with it?"

"I'm not saying that, you are."

"But it's what you're hinting at."

"Of course"

"You've lost it Camden."

"I know how it sounds, but you know me, would I lie?"

"No, you wouldn't lie, but you could be either mistaken or . . . . . ."

"Crazy, I believe is the word you're looking for."

"That's a little harsh, but not entirely wrong."

"Like I said before Teressa, you know me, am I crazy."

"You don't seem it, but you never can tell."

"Fine, don't believe me, but at least think, you yourself told me that there was some huge secret between Gary and Marissa, a secret that you weren't in on. You've been in situations where Gary saved you when he couldn't have possibly known you were in trouble. You've seen him come in looking like the wrath of God, with no explanation, think about it Teressa, can you come up with another explanation."

"Not really, but knowing the future, that's pretty out there."

"Yeah, it is out there, but do you think it's true, or am I three fries short of a Happy Meal."

Teressa laughed at that one, "no, I don't think you're nuts Camden, I'm not saying you're right, but you're not nuts."

"Then check it out and if worst comes to worst, ask Marissa. If she says 'no' right away then I'm wrong, if she says something like 'why do you ask' then I'm right."

"You're pretty darn sneaky Camden."

"All my life Walters, all my life."

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"So how is your family" Gary asked.

"Mom's not doing too well, but Anthony and Sophie are right down the street. Gina's moved to Kentucky of all places because she fell in love with some veterinarian that specializes in horses, in that biz I guess ya gotta go to where the action is."

"How'd she meet him?"

"She was workin security at some convention and stopped the guy from getting mugged, and now they're in love."

"I thought you said she was still married to Richie."

"Nah, apparently they got divorced about three months ago. Marie hadn't seen her since the divorce, so she didn't know. Hey, why twenty questions Hobson?"

"I've just missed the sound of your voice" Gary answered. Toni looked over at her husband, the guy was a total sap factory, but every sappy line was completely sincere. She still had trouble believing how often, and how far he would put his heart on the line for her. The couple continued to chat about Toni's trip to Michigan until they got to McGinty's. As Gary was opening the door to the loft, he remembered that there was a new piece of décor that he would have to explain. Before he could even start to say anything, Toni was past him and in the loft, Gary squinted his eyes in anticipation of the blast.

"Good Christ Hobson, what the hell is that and what's it doing in our place."

Gary opened his eyes to see his wife gazing at the painting with all her attention, horrible as it was, it seemed to have that effect. "Well, we had a bit of an incident while you were gone."

"So RC figured out about the paper and you read her the riot act, in spades"

"You could say that."

"And then she hit you with this, boy she must have been some kinda pissed off."

"That's a fair statement."

Toni turned to her husband the ghost of a smile on her face, "so tell me everything".

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"Ms. Camden, could I see you for a moment please" Dr. Pearson said right as the bell rang.

Ruthie walked to the front of the room, Dr. Pearson looked like a kindly old country doctor, but he could be as gruff as a Grizzly with a toothache, with a razor sharp tongue and the wit to use it with devastating effect. You didn't relax around Dr. Pearson. "Yes sir".

"I was curious whether or not you had chosena career path to follow?"

Ruthie was a bit confused as to why Pearson was asking her this and answered "not really sir".

"Would you be interested in staying in Chicago?"

"Yes sir, I love it here."

"Good, because the administration is considering offering you a job as an associate professor in the painting department."

Ruthie was rendered speechless for all of ten seconds, finally she said "I'm sorry, my bionic circuits must have failed just then, I thought you just offered me a professorship, and that couldn't be right."

"You heard me correctly Ms. Camden, now the offer isn't official just yet but, unless some serious snag presents itself, it will be."

Ruthie just looked at the professor that had challenged and terrorized her for five years, and had no idea how to react. For the second time in a month, her reserve just collapsed and she hugged the old man and floated out of the lecture hall, 'that settles the future' she thought to herself.


	16. Learning the Business

THE LEGACY – CHAPTER 15

"Remember, you know what's going to happen, you have the advantage, think about what you're going to do, then act." The words were spoken by a man to a young woman; he wasn't quite old enough, or she wasn't quite young enough for people to think they were daughter and father, cousins maybe, or a young uncle, the kind that always stirs up trouble at reunions. But the two people weren't related, at least not by blood. I suppose you could argue that they were related by bonds that were as tight as family, the same kind of bonds that soldiers or firemen feel for the people that they depend on. Comrades would probably be the best word to describe their relationship. This was quite a change from three weeks ago, when they were angry with each other, and hurling barbs and accusations back and forth, at least in their minds. But now they were comrades, partners, two people with a mission. "So how are you gonna handle it?"

"Little girl lost, I think."

"Not bad, that should work well, I mean the guy is a grandfather, some teary doe eyes and I bet he melts. Now remember what's important, ya got it."

"Yes Gary, keep him away from the corner until after the red Volvo is past."

"You realize that means grabbing his legs and holding on if he doesn't go for your play, right."

"By any means, fair or foul" the girl agreed.

The El stopped, and the pair got off at the station near the corner of Michigan and East 21st Street, just west of McCormick Place. Mr. Edward Daniels was going to drop his antique pocket watch in the road while waiting for the light to change, and as he was picking it up, a red Volvo was going to strike him in the head, killing him instantly. Well that's what the paper said. It was the mission of the pair to make the paper wrong. The only problem that the pair had was that there was no picture of the victim, so the girl wasn't exactly sure which old guy to approach. 'There he is' the girl thought, she had spied an old man looking at his pocket watch, and now he was having a bit of a time getting it back into his vest. She approached him rapidly. In the back of her mind, she realized that there could be two old guys with pocket watches on the same street corner in Chicago, but she was able to relax, knowing that Gary was there to back her up; that if she happened to pick the wrong guy, Gary would still be there to make sure everything was OK.

Quickly she whipped up some tears "excuse me sir, I've been trying to find this address and I'm just turned around, could you help me?"

The man looked around startled, this was Chicago after all; but what he saw was a young woman, she was certainly not dressed like a hooker or anything, with tears in her eyes. She was holding out a piece of paper towards him. "Excuse me Miss, what did you say?"

"I asked if you could help me find this place, I've been wandering around this part of town for two hours, but I can's seem to find it, do you know where it is?"

He glanced at the paper in the young woman's hand, it was an address, and one he actually recognized. He was still a bit wary, this was Chicago after all the young girl could have been a con artist or something like that, but she was crying and looked like an older version of his granddaughter, right down to the curly hair. He glanced at the address again, just to be sure. "You are a bit lost aren't you" he said in a calming voice "but don't worry, I'll give you directions." The girl's sniffling cleared up and she shot him a tentative smile.

"It's not hard, you walk uptown, till you hit 18th street, they you head west over the river, then turn north on Canal street, it's a few blocks north on the corner of Roosevelt." He had to speak up at this last part because a red Volvo, who's driver was obviously an idiot the man thought, had cut the corner sharply, earning him or her various slanders from the pedestrians.

Ruthie thanked the man profusely and then, maintaining character; hugged him hard and headed off in the direction he had indicated. The man checked his back pocket for his wallet, this was Chicago after all, but finding it still there, walked down the street towards the Logan Monument, where he was meeting an old World War II buddy. Had he looked in the other direction, he would have seen the teary eyed young girl meet up with an older man, but he didn't look, and didn't see.

"So; any comments?"

"Only that I should take acting lessons from you."

"Thanks Gary, but you know that there's a bunch of stuff that a twenty something girl can get away with that a thirtyish guy can't."

"Don't I know it, with me I always get the 'are you stupid or something' looks, the folks you save look like they want to take you home for milk and cookies, it's not fair."

"Yeah, but you get all the young ladies to swoon over your dashing good looks" Ruthie said, tongue firmly in cheek.

Gary preened a bit "well that is true enough; the only problem is that if I ever did anything about it, it'd be the last day of my life."

"Come on Gary, Toni wouldn't kill ya, she might remove a body part or two, but you'd still be alive, well probably" the girl added, remembering some displays of Brigatti's infamous temper.

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Actually it was Brigatti's suggestion that had led to this, Gary mentoring Ruthie in the paper, showing her how to deal with saves and giving her a good practical tutorial. Her reasons were twofold, one was to give Lindsey something that Gary hadn't had, a ready made helper that could fill the younger girl in on how it all worked and how to do what she was destined to do, a 'ready made Marissa' was how Brigatti had put it; two was that Toni believed Gary would be a lot less reckless with RC around, and this would keep him from taking really stupid chances. Gary suspected the second the second motive, but agreed whole heartedly with the first. Part of him wasn't sure that it was allowed to be that way, but since there was no instruction manual he figured it couldn't hurt. Of course if the British guy in the bowler hat told him to stop he would, but until then he figured he was safe enough.

For her part, Ruthie had never felt so satisfied. In the last three weeks she felt as though she was making a difference, more so than any other time in her life. She had made several radical changes to her life, and surprisingly she liked them. The first was the fact that she was in the studio a lot less than she had been. In a burst of brutal honesty, Ruthie would admit that she had several aching voids in her life, and that she had filled them with studio time, trying to loose herself in the productivity, but now she didn't need to loose herself. She still painted of course, at least two hours a day, but now it was because she wanted to, not because she had nothing else to do. She was now at McGinty's a good portion of her day, either working, or helping Gary or just hanging out.

One other big thing was the fact that she was taking Tae-Kwon-Do classes. Toni had pointed out that if she was gonna help Gary with the paper, that sooner or later she would run into criminals. Gary was a big guy and his size alone could intimidate most muggers, but Ruthie looked like just another target to the criminals; so she needed to be able to defend herself. Brigatti had sent her to the same dojo that the SWAT guys trained at, and Ruthie found herself really liking what she was doing. Her parents would probably freak out to learn that their baby girl was learning to kick ass, but she figured that this way, she'd at least be fairly safe on the streets. But before she had become too anxious to try out what she knew, Gary had reminded her of one huge fact, "remember RC, we're not supposed to be known; like the Men in Black, we see them, they don't see us."

Ruthie had immediately realized that Gary was correct, but still, she sometimes wished to try out what she knew in real life as opposed to on the mats in the dojo.

The only cloud on the emotional horizon was Teressa's change in attitude. There was something different about her now, as though she was faking happy as opposed to being happy. Something was up but Ruthie couldn't quite put her finger on what, they still talked and laughed together, but there was a wall now. Not a huge one, but a wall just the same, and the simple fact that it was there hurt Ruthie more than she could say. She hoped that it was something temporary, like when Cecelia had become such a big part of Ruthie's family. The dark haired girl recalled how upset she had been, how she had felt displaced, not knowing where she fit into her own family. She had become friends with Cecelia, and now thought of her as just another sister, but that had taken time. Ruthie realized that this was probably the case with Teressa. Ruthie had lobbied long and hard to have Gary include the other girl in the paper's inner circle, but for some reason Marissa was balking. That was something that she never told her friend. Teressa knew that someone was keeping her out of the loop, but she had no idea who it was. Ruthie did tell Teressa about the saves that she had helped with and what she had learned, but Ruthie could tell from the other girl's expression, it just wasn't the same as being there. Ruthie followed her train of thought to its obvious conclusion. Teressa had to be included, whether the 'adults' agreed with it or not. She hadn't told Teressa of this either, because frankly she was scared of revelations about the paper, but Ruthie hoped that between the two of them, they could come up with something that worked a bit better than Ruthie's New Years Day fiasco. Right now though, her problem was how to keep an extreme sports nut alive.

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"What the hell's a 'street luge' Gary asked her."

"Its kinda like a skateboard, but it's long enough for your whole body, and then you ride it down a hill on your back, feet first."

"So you don't look where you're going?"

"Well, that's where it gets tricky, you gotta have your head up to see, but it slows you down, so the trick is to look up just once in a while and then steer on what you remember."

"So you've done this kind of nonsense before" Gary asked, a little shocked.

"Hey, I'm from California remember. If you're a teenager out there it's a rule that you have to do some dangerously stupid stuff, besides, some of the guys are cute and really buff."

Marissa just laughed at the way Ruth had said this last bit. It was tough for her to remember sometimes that this was a young woman. She acted so contained and mature that it was funny when the hormones revealed themselves. "So any cute and buff guys in particular" she asked with a smirk.

"Well there was one" Ruthie replied, the color rising in her face "but I wasn't quite dangerous enough for him."

"So what happened?"

"He found a really dangerous girl, then he broke both his legs, now he's an accountant. I guess he got all the danger out of his system."

"As fascinating as all this has been RC, do you think we could concentrate on keeping this guy from killing himself" Gary asked.

"So he's supposed to miss a curve and then go flying down a hill and end up in a concrete storm drain where he drowns, is that right."

"That's the story."

"Are you sure we should help, I mean someone like that sounds almost too stupid to live" Ruthie said with a grin.

"I'm not disagreeing with ya" Gary said with a grin of his own "but that's not our call to make. So; any ideas?"

"Three possibilities; stop him before he starts, warn him about the curve, or put up a barrier so when he does miss the curve he's still OK."

"And which do you think is the best option?"

"Number three, definitely. Number one, you end up arguing with a pissed off teenage guy who's friends are gonna be ragging him for being a wussy, so he'll hesitate, but he'll go. Number two is just too uncertain, he might miss the warning, it might not help; I mean if he's out of control or something. That leaves number three."

"So what do you suggest for a barrier?"

"Hay bales, they're cheap and easy to come by."

"And the cover story?"

"We're a lawn service, seeding the yard and then putting down the hay to keep the birds from eating all the grass seed."

"Seeding, in the winter?"

"According to the weather, it's gonna be melting today, that's the perfect time to seed because the melting snow pulls the seed down into the ground. You'd be surprised at how well it works. My Grandma always waited till winter to seed the lawn; and it always looked great."

Gary smiled at his protégé "so, it sounds like we need some grass seed and hay bales. Gary thought for a minute "hang on, what about the house there, what do we say to them."

"Tell em the truth, it's a free service from a new lawn care company and that they were chosen at random."

Gary gave the young woman a look, the ease at which she concocted stories intimidated him from time to time "you're a bit scary Camden, you realize that; right."

Ruthie just looked up at her boss, not entirely sure what he meant. She just nodded and went back to figuring out where to get hay.

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"So how did it go with extreme guy" Teressa asked with a playful grin on her face.

Ruthie looked over at her friend smiling. They were showering at Warren Pak's dojo after a Tae-Kwon-Do lesson. Teressa had asked to take the classes as well when Ruthie had told her about them, and Ruthie was immensely glad that she had. For one thing, having a friend there made the classes that much more fun; for another, Teressa didn't seem to have any of that holding back when they were here together. When they were at Warren's her friend truly did seem happy and not just acting the part.

Warren was kind of a funny guy in and of himself. He was Korean, both his parents were from right around Seoul, but he had been born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. That made him tough as a teacher because he looked like Bruce Lee and talked like Gabby Hayes. When Warren was talking it was tough to listen to what he was saying and not just laugh out loud at his voice.

Ruthie laughed at her friend's question "not bad, he came roaring down the hill and missed the curve of course. Then he smashes into the hay bale, flips up and over it, and skids face first in the yard. Gary and I are just standing there looking at him like he'd grown a second head or something, and he's trying to cool it out, like he meant to do that. So the jerk comes over to me and asks 'so how was my form babe'; I'm telling you Teressa it was all I could do not to just laugh in the guys face."

"Why didn't you?"

"That would have been cruel, and I'm not cruel without a very good reason. Anyway, I told him that the shrieking like a girl part, just before he landed on his face was kinda cute, but didn't score any points with me. Gary heard that and just about wet himself from holding the laughter in. So danger boy just sulked off and picked up his luge and walked away."

"Was he at least cute?"

"Didn't notice, didn't care."

"Really, why not?"

"I dunno, he just didn't do anything for me I guess. Hey, can I ask you something Walters?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"Are you jealous?"

"Jealous, of who; and why would you think that?"

"Ever since I found out about the paper and started working with Gary, you've seemed off, like you're going through the motions of being happy, not actually being happy. And I remembered when Cecelia became an honorary Camden how displaced and jealous I felt, and I was worried that you might feel the same way."

Teressa turned away from her friend, she had been both hoping for and dreading this day for more than a year; and now the opportunity was in front of her and she was scared spitless. She closed her eyes, said a prayer, and turned back to her best friend. "I am jealous, but not of you."

"Who then" Ruthie asked, obviously confused.

"I'm jealous of Gary, because of all the time he gets to spend with you; because of how important he is to you now."

Ruthie's eyes got big; her friend's response had surprised her.

"I've been missing you Camden, missing the time where we just hung out and talked or painted side by side. I know that what you're doing is important and all, but I was just missing you, and I was jealous of Gary because he was taking you from me."

"So you've been missing the together time; I'm sorry Walters, I never even considered how all this would affect you."

"It's not just the time Camden; it's what we do in the time we're together. I wouldn't mind being closer to you, but you're always so busy, especially now."

"How do you mean closer Teressa" Ruthie asked, afraid of where the answer would take them.

"Well we've been friends a long time, and you've never been much for dating and guys and stuff, so I was wondering. . ." her voice trailed off as she was staring at her best friend, anxious to see what kind of a response she would get.

Before she could continue Ruthie walked towards her "Teressa, I love you, but I'm not in love with you. Don't get me wrong; I'd be lying if I said I hadn't thought about us as a couple once or twice, well maybe a few more times than that, but I just can't see us that way. I'm sorry, I wish I could be everything that you deserve, but I just can't, God knows that if I ever was with a woman there's no one else I would even think about being with, but it's not gonna happen."

Teressa's eyes had brightened at Ruthie's first words, but then everything sank in, and she felt her world start to crumble around her. 'How could I have been such an idiot' she thought to herself 'I was sure Camden didn't swing that way, but I had to push it'. She stood under the shower, her head down, tears mixing with the water pouring over her, when she felt a pair of arms around her.

"Please don't cry" Ruthie said as she held the sobbing girl.

"Why not" the girl replied "I doubt you'll want to hang out with some skanky dyke that has the hots for you."

"No" Ruthie agreed "but I'd hang out with my best friend in the world anytime she wants."

Teressa looked up and met the other girl's eyes, reading the sincerity and the friendship that was always there for her. She tried to speak but the words just wouldn't seem to make it past her throat "thanks Camden" she finally managed.

"Listen up Walters, cause I'm only gonna say this once; who you choose to sleep with is none of my business, and frankly other than you're skin color, it's the least important bit of information about you. You're orientation doesn't dictate who you are, or alter in one way the amazing woman that you are. It doesn't change your passions or loves or opinions or alter in any way the things that make you extraordinary. And it sure as heck doesn't change my friendship with you one bit."

Teressa just stood there for a moment, absorbing what her friend had told her; and then another thought hit her like a ton of bricks. Camden was holding her, in the shower, and they were both naked, after what she had said. Her friend hadn't pulled away or hesitated, she had offered comfort with no reservations; it was then that Teressa truly believed what Ruthie had told her. The younger girl had imagined how this night would go for almost a year, but in none of her daydreams or nightmares had it felt like this. She had exposed her soul, and her friend had cared for it tenderly. Sure, the thought that they wouldn't be a couple hurt, but not as much as Teressa had dreaded. But what was more important was that they still had their friendship, and that was the best outcome of all.


	17. Going Solo

I'm looking to the sky to save me

Looking for a sign of life

Looking for something to help me burn out bright

I'm looking for a complication

Looking cause I'm tired of trying

Try to make my way back home when I learn to fly

Foo Fighters

THE LEGACY – CHAPTER 16

"Hey RC" Gary called out as the girl walked in the door "think you could handle the paper today? I was kinda needing some couple time with Toni."

Ruthie just froze "you mean solo" she asked, all goggle eyed?

"Yes I mean solo, you can handle it kiddo, you've been doin great these last couple of weeks, you don't need me to hold your hand any more."

"You sure Gary, that's a heck of a load."

"Do you think you can handle it" he asked.

She thought dispassionately for a moment "yeah" she said finally "I think I can handle it. No" she amended "I'm sure I can."

"Here ya go then kiddo" Gary said, handing over the paper "what needs to be done?"

Ruthie started flipping through the _Sun-Times_, after a couple of minutes she said "pedestrian killed on the corner of State and Chicago; and a suicide, a lady jumps off of the roof of the Amberson Hotel on Rush street."

"Anything else?"

"Yeah, there's a fire but no one's injured, I figured call 911 early and say I smelled smoke. Oh and here's another 'Hell freezes over as Gary Hobson takes time to go on a date with his wife'. Satan quoted as saying "who knew it was possible."

Gary just looked at the girl nonplussed as Marissa almost fell off her seat laughing.

"I'd believe that last one" Toni's voice said from the doorway. Gary started to say something, then threw up his hands in defeat when he realized he was totally outgunned. Laughing at her husband, Toni Brigatti sauntered over and sat down in his lap. She gave him a brief but intense kiss and then leaned back "a date with my husband, what a novelty". Then she leaned in and kissed him again.

Both Ruthie and Marissa were starting to feel uncomfortable so they got up and left with as little fanfare as possible; although Marissa thought a bomb could go off in the next room and they wouldn't notice. As the two of them sat down in the bar, Marissa leaned over to the younger woman and asked "you sure you're going to be OK?"

"Yeah" Ruthie said "I'm a little freaky about talking to the jumper, but the pedestrian should be no problem. Plus I've got the number here and Gary's cell if things get too hairy."

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A COUPLE OF HOURS LATER

Marissa felt her Braille watch "you're on in less than an hour Ruth, you'd better get going."

"Thanks Marissa, I won't let you down."

"I know you won't" the woman softly said as Ruthie left the bar.

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Andrea walked to the edge of the roof and looked down. She didn't know if what she was doing was right or not, and she really didn't care. What she did know was that one way or another, the pain would be over. Not physical pain; that she could and had dealt with; but emotional pain, gut ripping emotional pain. She was alone in the world, and it was no one's fault but her own that it was only her; stupid, silly, weak her. She looked again, that really was a long way down. She closed her eyes and saw them again, Mike, Milly and Emma; her husband and her babies, all dead now because of her. Taking a deep breath, she opened her eyes and looked down again, that was indeed a long way. 'Focus dammit' she thought to herself, 'there's a reason you want it to be a long way down, you want to be sure you're dead'. Nodding to herself she approached the edge of the building, but then she heard a voice, soft but compelling "that seems like an awful waste".

Andrea took a step back and looked around; there not ten feet away was a young woman, sitting on the edge of the roof and dangling her legs over the side. "What's a waste" she asked the girl.

"Taking your life, it's a waste."

"You don't know me" Andrea replied "my death wouldn't be a waste, because I'm already a waste; I'd just be making room for someone else, someone with a better shot."

"You sure about that, you seem like someone with a lot to offer, not a waste."

"What do you know about me, you don't know me" Andrea said bitterly.

"Well, I know you're a teacher, and I'd be willing to bet your students love you, and I know you're hurting because you've lost someone close."

"How could you know I'm a teacher?"

"There's chalk on the cuff of your blouse" the young woman answered, as for the loss, that's a guess but one I'd bet on."

"Why did you guess that?"

"Because present course of action aside, you seem to be too smart to get involved with the usual suspects, drugs, gambling, affairs, that kind of stuff; that leaves loosing someone."

"You couldn't even begin to understand."

"Try me" the dark haired girl replied. "Have a seat and tell me you're tale, I'm not gonna grab for you or anything, just talk to me. What have you got to loose?"

Andrea thought for a moment, the girl did have a point; she was going to kill herself, what difference would a few minutes make. Carefully she sat down, making sure to keep a good distance between herself and the girl. "I killed my husband and daughters" she said without preamble.

She looked at the girl, and was surprised to see that there was no shock or anger, only sorrow and sympathy.

"How did you manage that" the girl asked, surprisingly not making it sound like an accusation. "I figure if you'd done that you'd be in jail right now, and from the way you're acting, you would welcome being in a place like that."

"It was a car accident."

"Were you driving drunk?"

"No, of course not."

"Did you hit them or something?"

"NO, I could never do anything like that."

"Was it an accident that only you walked away from?"

"No, I had a flat tire."

"Yeah, and"

"And I called my husband because I couldn't loosen the lug nuts to change the thing. He puts the girls in the car and comes to help me, and a truck runs a red light. I'm standing there calling and calling and getting mad because he's taking so long, and he's dead and I don't even know it. Finally I call 911, and they send a car around. I told the officer my name, and I could hear the breath catch in his throat. That's when I knew it was bad, but I didn't know how bad." Andrea's voice never changed or caught, but tears were pouring down her face.

"I didn't believe it you know, not until I had to identify the bodies. You see, I was the only one that could do it, both Mike and I were orphans, we were all each other had. So I had to go down and identify my husband and my daughters. I didn't want it to be them; I wanted it to be some horrible mistake, or a hoax or something, anything other than what it was. But it was them and they were dead, and I never got to say goodbye, or tell them that I loved them one last time, or hug them or watch them sleep or feel their hearts beat, everything that made my life good was gone."

Ruthie took a quick look at her watch, she had to leave in another twenty minutes to make the hit and run on time, but the story about the jumper hadn't changed; at least not yet. She carefully got up and made her way over to the woman and sat down and held her. Andrea flinched for a moment, but then just collapsed into the young woman's arms. Ruthie just held her, knowing that this was the right thing to do. "I can't imagine what that must have been like for you, the agony of your loss" she said. "Especially without family, you must be an incredibly strong person."

Andrea pulled slightly away and looked at the dark haired girl "how can you say that, knowing what I'm going to do."

"All I know" Ruthie replied "was that I would have done it right after leaving the hospital if it had been me."

"How do you know I'm not, for all you know the accident could have been yesterday?"

"True" Ruthie acknowledged "but judging by what I can guess about you, I'm betting that it was before Thanksgiving, and that you got through the holidays, but it kept getting tougher and tougher, then when school started again, all you saw was your daughters in every girl student. I'd bet you tried counseling, but talking to some twit in a brown sweater didn't help. So now here you are, at the end of your emotional rope, and just wanting the hurt to go away."

"How could you possibly know all that" Andrea asked, amazed at the accuracy of the girl's predictions.

"Because of my brother Simon; he killed a friend of his by accident, and about two months later, after the family thought he was on his way back, I caught him with a gun. No one else in the family knows about it, and I never told anyone, but that's what he said, he said he just wanted the pain to stop. That he was tired of fighting; tired of acting normal around everyone when he wasn't normal anymore. He felt guilty for grieving, like he was letting everyone down."

"So what happened to him?"

"He works here in Chicago, as an actuary. For Christmas two years ago I gave him a bullet, just to remind him of what he almost missed out on, the life he would have never known if he had actually used that gun."

"How did he make it?"

"One day at a time, and he talked to someone who could understand what it was like to be responsible for taking a life, someone who could identify with what he was feeling. With friends and prayer and a lot of hard work, but ultimately he made it one day at a time. I want you to talk to someone; someone I think would be able to help you."

"Who's that" Andrea asked, suddenly wary.

"My boss, a guy named Gary Hobson, he might not be able to understand exactly where you're coming from, but he knows the guilt over losing someone he felt responsible for. He's dealt with it."

"Is he a psychiatrist or something?"

"Nope, he's a bar owner, but his partner has a degree in psychiatry."

"You really think he could help me?"

"I don't know if he can or not, but is it really worth ignoring the possibility" Ruthie said, nodding at the building's ledge.

"It's so hard."

"I know but life is hard at times, that's when you need others; that's a lesson I've learned lately."

"Really"

"Yeah, I'd spent my life as 'Little Miss Independent' but that just meant that when the chips were down, I really didn't have anyone I could count on. In the last year I've figured out how badly I needed other people to get by. Let others help you, it doesn't make you weaker, it means you're strong enough to admit that you can't handle everything. That's an admission that's never easy to make."

"So where is this guy?"

"A bar called McGinty's, down on the corner of Franklin and Illinois."

"Could you come with me?"

Ruthie checked her watch, her heart sank; the pedestrian was already dead so what did it matter if she took some more time. "Sure, I'll take you there."

Together the two of them walked down off the roof and off to McGinty's. Ruthie knew she had done the right thing helping Andrea, but the cost was so steep that she wasn't sure if it was worth it.

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Ruthie showed up about half an hour later with Andrea. The entire time she had tried not to burst into tears, both at Andrea's story and at the fact that she had failed her first time out. A person was dead because of her, and she didn't quite know how she'd cope. As the pair of them walked in, she spotted Gary at the bar with Toni, they were debating on which team was the worst in Baseball, the Cubs or the Tigers. Ruthie walked right up to Gary, "someone needs to talk to you Gary, about a couple of teenagers."

Gary blanched at the memory of what he considered a failed save, and saw how the woman who was with RC was barely holding on to herself. "Sure" he said "let's go back to the office for some privacy." He escorted Andrea back to his office, and as soon as the woman was out of sight, Ruthie collapsed sobbing on the bar.

Fortunately Toni was immediately there and led her over to a booth. "What's up RC" the detective asked.

"I failed" the girl all but wailed, "Gary trusted me and I failed."

"How did you fail sweetie" Toni asked as gently as possible.

"I had two saves and I could only make one" the girl replied between sobs. "I talked to her, but the story wouldn't change, not until after the pedestrian was supposed to be killed."

"Have you checked the paper?"

"No, why would I need to?"

"Because sometimes it works in really strange ways, making one save sometimes effects the others. Trust me, just look."

Ruthie opened the paper and looked, there was no story about the hit and run; it was gone. The young woman was incredulous "how the heck did that happen?"

"My guess is that somehow the suicide would have re-routed traffic and caused the accident. Change one, change em both."

"But if that hadn't been the case, someone would have died because of me."

"True enough RC, would you be able to handle it if they had died?"

"I don't know" Ruthie replied.

"Well if you're gonna keep doing this, you better figure that out, cause sometimes you just miss, for no good reason. Sometimes you just have a bad day. What Gary does, and what you're helping with, is kinda like what a trauma doc deals with; you make your decision and go with it. I got this story from Marissa, Gary doesn't know I know; one day he had two saves at the same time. One was this little girl who was gonna be hit by a car and die because she got lost in the shuffle at the hospital, the other was a plane crash that would kill about a hundred and fifty people. Gary took the girl and sent Chuck and Marissa to stop the plane somehow, but they got stuck on the El. They called him and told him what was happening, but he didn't leave the girl. Marissa is convinced that somehow he could have stopped the plane if he left the girl, but he just couldn't do it; he made a decision and stuck to it even though it meant that a lot of people died."

"How did he live with that" the girl asked.

"He didn't have to, thank God, it turns out that the girl was the pilots daughter, once Gary got her noticed, the hospital called the family, and he turned around, so no plane crash. The point is that he just couldn't leave someone to die like that, someone he had promised to help, just like you couldn't today. You said your brother's a doc, right."

"His wife is too."

"Then ask him sometime what the ER rotation was like for him. Sometimes you've only got bad choices, so go with your gut and do the best you can; that's all any of us can do."

"I'd bet it's the same thing when you're a cop, sometimes every option is a bad one, but you can't waste time second guessing yourself, you just have to learn from the mistakes that will happen."

The detective smiled at her young friend "that's it exactly RC, you learned a hell of a lesson today, don't ever forget it; use it and become better for it."

Ruthie got up from the table and hugged Toni "thanks for being here, I really needed you today."

"You're welcome RC" the older woman said, clearly flustered, aand also realizing how hard an admission that was for theartist"hey you know I'm not much for the touchy-feely stuff, so can we ease up on the PDA."

"Sure" Ruthie said, she let goof the detectiveand went looking for Teressa.

Toni was amazed; the girl had saved a woman, but had totally ignored that fact because she had thought she had lost one as well. The good work she had done hadn't even crossed her mind; and that reminded Toni of a certain dark haired bar owner she knew. Gary had mentioned before that he wondered if Lindsey was really the right choice, Toni thought that she was, but acknowledged that RC was something special too.

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Ruthie had found Teressa and filled her in on what had happened that day and what she had learned from it. Teressa said that she would have done the same thing had she been in Ruthie's place, and that made the dark haired girl feel better. Teressa went on to make a couple of suggestions about what to do if that kind of situation ever arose again, things that Ruthie hadn't even thought about. She wrote them down and thanked her friend profusely, and the joy she had seen on Teressa's face because Ruthie had listened, made telling the younger girl about the paper seem more and more the right thing to do. The two would have continued chattering away, except Gary picked that time to come out of the office with Andrea. The woman looked a lot better than she had the bone deep sadness wasn't there anymore. Ruthie could see that the woman was still hurting, but felt that she had turned a corner. "Thank you" was all she said, but her tone said so much more, and then she left.

"You did good RC" Gary said to his young protégé.

"You do know I didn't have a chance to save the pedestrian, right?"

"Yeah" Gary replied "I know; tell me something, would you have done anything differently if you had to do it again?"

Ruthie thought for a moment "no, nothing different."

"Then you've learned a lot kid" Gary said "you've learned a lot."


	18. Good News and Bad News

THE LEGACY – CHAPTER 17

It was a week later and Ruthie was still a little freaked from her day soloing, but she was slowly coming to grips with the consequences of dealing with the paper. She had helped Gary out once or twice since her solo shot, and she had realized that helping him was a burden that she wanted to bear. Another thing that had helped her deal was the distraction provided by her brother.

On Tuesday, right in the middle of the lunch rush, the big dummy had knelt down in the middle of the floor and proposed to Lily. Ruthie was happy for them both, but she could imagine the fireworks that had occurred when he had called home. Apparently the fact that she was going to be a lawyer didn't cut much ice with the Camden clan. The reaction of Lily's family was no better when she told them that she had accepted his proposal. The idea of Lily marrying some money grubbing, conservative, blond surfer dude from California didn't fit the plans that they had made for their little girl. The pair remained undaunted and Ruthie felt that Simon had summed it up best when he said "the heck with all of them, we're the ones getting married; they're just gonna have to learn to deal." The two of them were head over heels for each other and didn't seem to care that both families were ready to disown their offspring.

She was sitting in class, letting her mind wander over the subject of Simon's impending nuptials and reminding herself to go to the bank after class when the bell rang.

"Ms. Camden, could I have a word with you please?"

Dr. Pearson wanted to talk to her, maybe it was about the professorship he had mentioned. Ruthie bounded down the stairs of the lecture hall "yes sir" she said.

By way of reply he handed her an envelope and said "would you do the honors please?"

A little perplexed, Ruthie looked at the envelope, it was from the Guggenheim Foundation. Her eyes shot back up to Dr. Pearson "Teressa" she asked. He nodded with a smile "you want me to tell her, either way" she asked and again he nodded.

The girl closed her eyes and said a prayer, then broke the seal and eased the letter out.

"Do we have another one to put in the case" the professor asked.

Ruthie remained silent for a moment, her eyes scanning the letter; they flickered to the top and then back down again. Dr. Pearson was starting to get impatient, but then he saw a huge grin break out on his student's face and he had his answer. He then recognized the look in the young woman's eyes and put out a hand to stop her.

"Please no physical displays Miss Camden, my back is still aching from the last one. Why don't you go find your friend and tell her the good news."

"Thank you sir" the girl threw over her shoulder as she sprinted out of the hall. She was so happy, she felt like she would burst as she headed towards McGinty's. 'Oh crap, the bank' she thought a moment or two later. It was something she really needed to take care of, and it would only take a couple of minutes. She needed to deposit the last check she had gotten from the _Sun-Times_, because she had been holding it for a week. She altered her path to McGinty's and stopped by a branch of Bank of America on the corner of Madison and Dearborn. She rushed in and was filling out a deposit form before she realized who it was that was there with her. It was that awful reporterette from the _Sun-Times_. Ruthie blew out a heavy sigh, and the other woman looked up, eyes going wide with distaste when she realized who was there with her. Both young women resolved to simply ignore the fact that the other existed and went about their business. Ruthie had finished with the deposit slip and looked up to see something that made her blood run cold; it was Gary and Toni.

Ruthie knew that if they were here there was only one reason, and it wasn't banking. She knew that Gary did all of his banking through Illinois Trust, both for himself and for McGinty's. When Ruthie asked why he used such an old fogey institution like that, he just gave her a little grin and said "tradition". Ruthie hadn't understood, but Gary had made it clear that that was the end of the conversation. If Gary and Toni were here, that meant a robbery was going down and soon. Then Ruthie realized that if Toni was here, that probably meant shooting as well. Ruthie started scanning the branch, looking for someone that didn't fit, that looked as though they were loitering a little too casually.

Nothing, no robbers anywhere, no one that even looked like they were mildly bad; there were no long loose coats, no high collars to disguise the faces, nothing. She was frantically looking around when she heard the bank's door open. Then she saw all of the long coats she ever wanted to see. Three men walked in as though they owned the place. The one in the lead was reaching behind him when Ruthie screamed "gun" and ducked behind the little work station in the middle of the floor. As soon as the word was out of her mouth, all hell broke loose. People were yelling and running and there voices bellowing orders and pure chaos, fortunately though, there were no shots, at least not yet. Ruthie looked up from her hiding spot to see what was happening, and was horrified to see that the young reporter had frozen, standing right out in the open, she wasn't crouched or looking for cover, she was just standing immobile in the middle of the darned floor.

Ruthie saw the three men looking around and trying to clear their weapons from their coats. Peripherally she saw Brigatti and two guards draw their weapons and take aim. Ruthie broke from her cover and raced over towards the Latina in order to get her out of the line of fire. One of the robbers cleared his weapon just as Brigatti shouted "FREEZE" but the man didn't freeze, he continued to try and raise the automatic shotgun. As the weapon came up, a shot rang out and blood was suddenly spraying from the man's forehead. His hands convulsed as he died and the shot tore into the carpet at his feet. The man's death should have been the end of it, but for some reason, the other two robbers kept on pulling their weapons. Brigatti yelled "FREEZE" again, but it did no good. Ruthie was closing on the girl, when she heard Brigatti's second shout. She dove and hit the girl with one of Gary's patented flying tackles and forced her to the ground just as the shooting erupted around them. The ground hit her a lot harder than she expected, and the young artist lost consciousness.

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Toni hated this, the robbers had to know that they were in deep when they lost surprise, but they had decided to shoot it out anyway. What a waste, if they had surrendered then at least they would still be alive, and not looking at that much jail time (relatively speaking), but they hadn't surrendered, and now they were dead. She holstered her pistol and looked back at Gary; he was fine, and checking the paper. Toni saw her husband go ashen, and before she knew it he was screaming for an ambulance.

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Janet's mind was still trying to process what had just happened. She had heard someone yell "gun", then she had seen the men in the coats and the guards; and she had just stood there. For whatever reason she had just stood like some spectator at a sporting event wanting the best seat to view the action; even when the shooting had started, she had been as immobile as a deer in the headlights. That is until someone had knocked her down. Now that the shooting had stopped she was trying to untangle herself from her rescuer and see what had happened. "Thanks but you can let go now" she said to the weight that was lying on her, she looked and all she could see was a mass of brown curls. "You can move now" she said a bit more sharply, but there was no movement. 'Great' she thought 'they're brave enough to knock me down, then pass out on top of me'. "Thanks again" the journalist said and shoved the person off of her. The first thing she noticed was her rescuer was the artist girl that she didn't like. The second thing she noticed was that her hands were wet and red when she pulled them back. Somewhere she heard someone yelling for an ambulance, but she was frozen again, staring down at the face of the person that had saved her life; then she looked back at her blood covered hands and screamed.

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Gary responded first to the screaming girl. He saw her standing, staring at her hands as though she could not understand what was on them. When he got to her, he realized that the blood was not hers; it belonged to the person that was still on the floor. Gary didn't understand, according to the paper, the young journalist was supposed to get shot in the arm, but the journalist was fine, and someone else had been shot. He bent down and carefully rolled over the body of the bystander and recoiled when he realized that he was looking at the face of Ruthie Camden. He tore the paper open, hoping that the wound was superficial, that RC would be fine. "Art Student Killed During Robbery Attempt" was the headline that he saw. Apparently Ruthie was going to die because the Ambulance would break down in traffic and she would bleed out before she could get to the hospital. Gary looked up and found his wife "Toni, we need some towels or something and we need to get her to the hospital now".

"The Ambulance is on the way Hobson".

"I know, but it'll be too late."

Toni's eyes got wide and she glanced from her husband's face to the paper and back to his face, searching for confirmation.

He noticed and gave her a brief nod, telling her that this was indeed something he had read.

The cop in Brigatti took over, she started barking orders for towels or blankets or anything to stop the blood flowing, anything that would keep RC alive long enough to get them to a hospital. Soon Gary was carrying the young woman out to a squad car, Toni was already in the back seat to help and an officer already had the motor running. As soon as the door was closed, they tore out in the direction of the nearest hospital. The sergeant who was driving slowed only once, then sped up when he was told that he'd be busted down to walking a beat if he even thought about using the brake before they got to the ER. Brigatti had radioed ahead, and the doctors at Mercy Hospital knew what was coming. As soon as Gary was out of the car, Ruthie was whisked away to a waiting Operating Room; and all Gary and Toni could do was call the girl's family and wait. Gary didn't know what was going to happen because the article was still there but it was blurred, Gary figured that meant that the outcome was still in question. With shaking hands he pulled out his cell phone and called McGinty's.

"McGinty's, this is Marissa Clark, how can I help you?"

"Marissa, it's Gary, I need you to do something for me."

"Sure Gary, what is it?"

"I need you to call RC's brother and tell him that she's in emergency surgery down at Mercy Hospital."

"Oh my God, what happened?"

"There was a shootout, RC dove on someone that was in the line of fire and got clipped herself."

"Does the paper have anything to say?"

"No, the article's still there, but it's blurry, like things aren't set yet."

"I'll call her brother, and then I'll be there as soon as I can."

"God Marissa, she wasn't even supposed to be there, we never told her about this one, it was just bad luck."

"You said she was saving someone?"

"Yeah, the reporter girl that was there the other day."

"Then she was doing what she thought was right, no one's to blame for that Gary, especially you."

"I know Marissa, Toni told me the same thing; I just can't help but feel that there was something else I could have done."

"You always think that Gary, but when the two smartest women you know agree, you should listen."

Her comment cause Gary to give the phone a weak smile "message received Marissa; just hurry down here as quick as you can, please."

"Sure Gary, I'm on my way." The blind woman hung up the phone, then her head just sagged forward, and she prayed that her friend would pull through; she also prayed that she would find the right words for Simon Camden.

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McGinty's had closed; there was no one there to run the place because everyone was down at the hospital waiting for news. It had been five hours since Ruthie had arrived at the hospital, and so far all anyone would say was that she was still alive; period. Simon Camden was there with Lily in his arms; her eyes were puffy and red from crying, he was just shell shocked. When he had arrived he had said that his parents were due in late that night, along with Lucy and Kevin. Matt and Sarah had juggled their schedules so they could take care of the twins and Savannah. Teressa wore a look much like Simon's; she simply could not comprehend the fact that her best friend might die. Gary was pacing around like an angry lion; he would just glare at the paper and growl; then pace some more.

Finally the doors opened and a doctor in a blood spattered gown came out, "Ruth Camden" he said, and then was shocked as the entire room seemed to converge on him.

Simon stalked up, as people cleared a path for him "Yes, how is she?"

"Well, it was touch and go for a while, but she never crashed; baring any unforeseen complications, she'll make a full recovery. Your sister is one hell of a fighter Mr. Camden."

The sigh of relief was enough to ruffle the notices on a bulletin board halfway down the hall; "could I see her please" Simon asked "just for a second."

The doctor hesitated for a moment, then realized that the crowd would probably lynch him if he said no "family only, and only for a minute."

Finally allowing the tears to come, Simon stumbled off after the doctor to see for himself that Ruthie was going to be alright.

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For Lucy, the day had been one continuous nightmare; the screams over the phone, the rushing off, the uncertainty of what they would find. Her parents looked like they had both been gut punched, and she realized that in every way but physical; they had been. Kevin had been her island of stability in all of this, for whatever reason, he was convinced that nothing less than a nuclear blast would take out Ruthie, and his belief that she would pull through had never wavered.

The taxi pulled up to the ER entrance and they all but ran in, looking for any bit of information. Fortunately the first person they saw was someone they recognized; Marissa, she had just gotten back from walking Riley.

Marissa's head had come up at the sound of the rushing people. She knew who she hoped it was, but she didn't want to say anything to the wrong people, she was spared that dilemma when they spoke first "Ms. Clark it's Eric Camden, how's Ruthie?"

"Marissa gave her most reassuring smile "she's out of surgery and fine, the doctors expect her to make a full recovery."

"Can we see her?"

"I'll take you to someone you can ask" she replied and headed off towards the OR waiting area. The Camdens were shocked by the number of people that were there to reassure them that everything was going to be alright. Most of them they recognized from the Christmas party, but the sheer number was daunting. After being told who they were, the duty nurse immediately took Eric and Annie back to where they could see their daughter; that left Lucy and Kevin alone with a room full of strangers. They looked around awkwardly until Toni came up "you're a cop, right" she asked Kevin. When he nodded she continued "my name's Toni Brigatti, I'm a lieutenant in the Chicago PD."

"Yeah, he answered, where's Simon, and what happened?"

"Simon went home with his fiancé as soon as he found out she'd be OK, he'll be back in the morning. As to what happened, RC just happened to be in a bank when it was getting robbed, there was a girl standing in the middle of a crossfire and Ruthie tackled her. She got shot in the process, but she saved the other girl's life. If you want to see the tapes, I can let you do that tomorrow down at the precinct as a departmental courtesy, I'd also understand if you didn't want to see them, it ain't pretty." She had added that deliberately, telling him but not his wife that people died on that tape, and a strong stomach would be required to watch it.

"That won't be necessary" Kevin replied "but I appreciate the offer".

As Brigatti was finishing, Marissa came up "do you have somewhere to stay tonight?"

"No" Lucy answered "it all happened too fast."

"Well then you can stay with me tonight, that way we'll be back here first thing in the morning" The Kinkirk's looked like they weren't sure when Marissa added the capper; you're both exhausted, staying here wouldn't do either of you any good, especially you" she said to Lucy, referring to the woman's pregnant condition. Reluctantly they realized that the blind woman was right, but they refused to leave until Lucy saw her parents again, and was reassured that Ruthie was going to be alright.

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'She looks so small' Annie thought as she stared down at her daughter. Ruthie was pale and bandaged and there was a small army of machines monitoring every facet of her current existence. Seeing her like this was too much for Annie and Eric, they were running on adrenalin and exhaustion; after assuring themselves that she was indeed alive, they stumbled back to the waiting room in tears. There they were comforted not only by Lucy and Kevin, but by the entire McGinty's staff. After the Camden's had a good cry, the group broke up; Lucy told her parents that they were staying with Marissa, and Gary led Eric and Annie off along with Toni. As they were headed out to the car, Annie asked the one question that she had to know the answer to "what happened"?

"We had gotten a tip that a branch of Bank of America was gonna be hit, but we didn't know which one. We had assigned an officer to each branch, myself included, they just happened to show up at the branch that I was stationed at and that RC was using. I gave them two chances to give it up, but they were determined to shoot it out. There was a girl, a reporter for the _Sun-Times_ who just froze in the middle of the floor, right out in the open. Your daughter saw that and ran over to get her out of danger. She saved the girl, but got clipped herself; I rushed her here, and you know the rest.

"Thank you" Annie said "for saving her".

"You're welcome" Toni replied "but compared to her, I didn't do much".

"Where are we headed, by the way" Eric asked.

"McGinty's" Gary replied from the driver's seat "we figured you didn't have a place to stay, and we've got a spare room."

The Camden's finally allowed themselves to relax, the knowledge that Ruthie would be alright, and the caring and hospitality of her friends finally succeeded in easing their worries, at least for a little bit. When they got to the bar Gary asked "can I get you all anything, either to eat or drink"?

Annie and Eric hadn't eaten since they had left the house that morning, and now they were feeling it. "That would be great, but we can take care of it" Annie said.

"It's no trouble" Gary said "Toni can show you where you're staying and when you get back down, I'll have something ready."

Without a word, Brigatti led the Camden's up the stairs and into the guest loft; true it was above a bar, but it was cozy and comfortable. As they were walking in the door, Toni finally spoke up "in case you're interested, All Saints is less than a block away, and I know it's open all night, in case you need a church". With that she eased herself out of the room and back downstairs to help Gary in the kitchen, well as much as she could.

When the Camden's came back downstairs, Toni showed them to a table and Gary came out with some Fettuccini Alfredo, Garlic Bread, Salads and Tea. Eric and Annie were stunned that such an elaborate meal had been thrown together so quickly.

"So did you put this together Toni" Annie asked.

Brigatti actually laughed at that "me, God no; I'm a disaster in the kitchen, Gary's the cook in the family, I just butter the bread and toss the salads."

Dinner conversation carried on, a little strained it's true, but carried on just the same. Gary and Toni were telling the Camden's stories from Ruthie's acting stint and some of the other things she had been doing in Chicago. It made the girl's parents realize how deeply these people cared for Ruthie, and they were happy knowing that she had people like that in her life.


	19. Hospital Stories

A/N Sorry it's a short one, but it seemed the right place to stop.

THE LEGACY – CHAPTER 18

It was white, too darn white for her eyes to comfortably focus on anything. Her brow wrinkled in confusion, the bank hadn't been white, so where was she. She was stiff, like she hadn't moved in a while, and her left side ached, a lot. Finally her eyes adjusted to the light and she was able to see what was around her. The first thing she noticed was the IV stand, then she saw the monitors and telltales tracking the functions of her body. She tried to talk, but her throat was too dry, she tried to manufacture some saliva to loosen it up. Finally she was able to croak out "where am I"; but there was no answer. It was obvious that she was in a hospital, but she didn't know which one, and more importantly, she didn't know why. Slowly her hand found the call button and she rang the nurse. "Can I help you?"

"Yes, where am I and why am I here?"

"Oh" the nurse said, realizing who it was "just a minute Ms. Camden, I'll tell the doctor that you're awake, he can explain everything."

"Than you" Ruthie said and relaxed back into the bed. 'Let's see if I can figure out what's up before he gets here. Her right arm moved OK and her head seemed fine, but when she tried to move her left arm, she found it had been restrained. 'Something happened to my left side' she thought, but what. The only two possibilities were that she had broken something or that she had been shot. Considering what had been going on at the bank, she figured it was the second one. Gently, she started probing her left side with her right hand, no bandages in her gut, nothing below the breast, ahhh; there it was, between her collar bone and her breast, a mass of bandages that throbbed when she put the slightest bit of pressure on it.

"Please leave that alone young lady, I did some lovely stitching on you and I'd hate to see it ruined."

Ruthie didn't move her hand, but her head whipped around to see the owner of the voice. It was an older man with silver hair and the palest blue eyes that Ruthie had ever seen. "So what happened to me doctor?"

"Well, you seem to have gotten yourself shot Miss Camden, didn't you have anything better to do?"

"Maybe one or two things, but you know what happens when an impulse strikes." She looks over at the man's ID and sees the name Steven, but she can't see the last name. "So you patched me up there Dr. Steve?"

"Yes I did, and I must tell you it was touch and go there for a bit, but you're one hell of a fighter Miss Camden."

"Call me Ruth or Ruthie please, 'Miss Camden' makes me feel like an old school teacher."

"Alright Ruth, the bullet did some significant structural damage to your shoulder blade, and then nicked a few things on it's way out your front, including a pulmonary artery, that's why you bled so much. Fortunately the police acted quickly and got you here in record time."

"You said structural damage; will it affect my arm movements?"

"For a while, yes it will. You will have to have your arm in a sling for a bit until everything knits back together, but with some therapy you should regain full use and full strength."

"How long are we talking about here doc?"

"Well the physical therapist is the real expert, but I'd ballpark it at two months from now, maybe six weeks."

Ruthie relaxed even more; she'd still be able to paint. True, she could paint right now with her right, she was a righty after all, but she liked using her off hand for different effects, and the thought of loosing that had scared her for a moment. "Thanks, doctor Steve, for everything."

"My pleasure Ruth, now the nurses have to take some blood and stuff, then I think you can have visitors, do you feel up to it?"

Ruthie thought for a second "absolutely".

"That's a good sign, but don't hesitate to let them know if you're feeling tired, your body went through a lot, let it heal."

"I will, I promise."

She watched the doctor leave and then kicked herself, she hadn't asked how long she'd been here; 'well I can ask the nurses' she thought.

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Gary couldn't believe it when he looked at the paper, only two saves today, and both of them were just phone calls. Over the years he had gotten better at the warning call, and now he knew just how to approach each one. That would leave him time to get the Camden's down to see RC. He knew Toni would be there sooner or later, but she still had to get to work. "Tell her I'll be by later" she had called to her husband as she left.

Lucy and Kevin had come over with Marissa, who was going to stay at McGinty's for a while, and then come to the hospital with Brigatti. Teressa wasn't going to school today and so the four Camden's, Teressa and Gary loaded into the McGinty's van and headed down to Mercy Hospital. When they got there they immediately saw Simon and Lily waiting for them in the foyer. Things were a bit awkward because Eric and Annie (especially Annie) weren't comfortable with Simon's fiancé and Lucy had never met the girl. After the introductions and some stilted conversation, the nurse arrived to tell them that Ruthie was ready for visitors. Everyone gave a sigh of relief as they headed back to Ruthie's room.

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Ruthie was worried; especially about her mom. She knew Annie loved her, but she was afraid that her mom would want, no demand, that she come back to Glen Oak. Ruthie now knew that Chicago was her home, not Glen Oak, not anymore, but she knew that her mom would force her to choose, and she was worried about how her mom would react when she chose to stay here. She watched them come in, and was amused to see that they segregated themselves into Camdens and non-Camdens. Her mom looked down at her, eyes wet with unshed tears "how are you feeling honey"?

"Pretty good mom, all things considered."

"So what did the doctor's have to say?"

"I'll be here another couple of days but I should be fine. The doctor said I'll make a full recovery. Thank God they were using jacketed ammo, or else it would have burst when it hit and killed me, instead it just went straight through." Ruthie looked up at Gary "does Toni have any idea who they were and what they were after."

Gary got very uncomfortable as everyone in the room was suddenly looking at him. "Uhmm, the best guess is that they were pros, probably former spec ops soldiers or something like that. They didn't have any ID, but they did have the numbers of a couple of safe deposit boxes, Toni's trying to get the bank to open them up to see what was there. Anyway, there's no telling right now if it was something they put together or if they were hired."

Eric and Annie just stared at each other appalled, what kind of place was this where they talked about hired bank robbers like it was a common thing. Annie looked down at her daughter again, and Ruthie groaned inwardly at the determined set in her eyes. "When were done visiting we'll talk to the doctor about transferring you back to Glen Oak."

"Why, I'm fine here?"

"You got shot here Ruthie; you don't belong in a place like this."

"This is my home now, not Glen Oak. I don't ever want to leave."

Annie was about to say something more when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She whipped around to find herself looking into Lily's chocolate brown eyes "yes" she said with a snap.

"Could I speak to you for a second Mrs. Camden" the girl asked, her eyes almost pleading with the older woman.

Annie closed her eyes and shook her head, then looking back into the eyes of the girl that might one day be another daughter, she just nodded. The two women could hear Simon asking Ruthie something about school as they exited the room.

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"What do you want" Annie asked without preamble as they got into the hall.

"Don't make her choose Mrs. Camden, you won't like the way it works out."

"Speaking from experience" Annie asked, still not liking that the girl had interrupted her talk with Ruthie.

"Yes I am" the willowy girl said "I listened to my mom have this discussion with my sister after she had moved to New York. My sister stayed and they never spoke to each other again."

"Why not" Annie asked.

"9/11" Lily replied, her eyes slowly leaking tears "Deanna was in the North Tower, the plane hit and she was trapped. She called home, but I was the only one there. She would have given anything to talk to mom one last time, but it wasn't meant to be. I could hear the screams and yelling in the background, but my sis held it together just as calm as anything, I know she was just waiting for mom to get home, but then the Tower fell. I can't even begin to describe how my mom reacted; she would have traded places with Dea in a second if she could. She was out getting a manicure when Dea called the last time, she hasn't gotten one since, and she probably never will. Life's too short and uncertain to be fighting because your daughter is growing up and you don't want her to. Just accept her choices, disagree with them if you want, but please accept the fact that she is choosing her life and her path. You don't want to miss out on her life because you were trying to protect her. You can't protect her from everything, life won't let you. So be strong enough to let her go."

Annie just looked at the girl, and saw exactly what Simon saw in her; the strength and level head, and most of all, the compassion that she possessed. She took the younger woman into her arms and just repeated "thank you" over and over.

Lily was surprised at the reaction of her fiancé's mom, but she held the older woman until her tears became a more manageable torrent. Annie stepped back and looked at her future daughter in law "you know I haven't thought much of Simon's decision making for the last couple of years, but I've got to tell you I've never been happier being wrong. It's an honor to welcome you to the family". With that, she hugged the younger woman again, and they headed back to the room. They were just outside the door, when they heard and obviously feminine shriek of delight.

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Ruthie said a silent prayer that Lily had pulled her mom out of the room before it got too ugly. Unfortunately Lucy decided that, as older sister, it was her place to take over. Fortunately Simon cut in "so anything new at school?"

"Actually there is" Ruthie answered "I have an inside source that says the administration is thinking of offering me a position as an associate professor once I graduate."

"They can do that" Eric asked, while the others in the room just stared at her, dumbstruck.

"Yeah they can" Ruthie answered. "When I graduate I'll have my MFA (Master of Fine Arts), and that's all you need. I'll never be a full professor unless I get my doctorate, but that's for the future to decide."

"So you'd take it if they offered" Eric asked, realizing that Ruthie was out of the nest just as thoroughly as Simon.

"In a heartbeat Dad, it would be the perfect set up for me; supplies, young minds to keep me flexible, a place to show my work, it's all good."

"And you'd be staying in Chicago" he said with a bit of finality.

"Yeah, I'd be staying here; I love this place Dad, I'll visit as often as I can, but I don't expect to ever call California home again."

"So you might be teaching me next year" Teressa asked, not truly believing what she had heard.

"Could be" Ruthie replied "but I doubt there's much left to teach you"; just then the brunette remembered something "hey Walters, I almost forgot, are my pants hanging in that closet over there?"

Teressa went over to the closet in question and found a pair of Camden's paint spattered jeans. "Yeah, they're hanging here, what's up?"

"Could you bring me the envelope that's in the back pocket?"

"Sure, why do you need it?"

"It's something the administration wanted me to tell you" Ruthie told her friend.

Now Teressa was nervous, was she in some sort of trouble, she had wanted to be included in a summer program at the Louvre in Paris, she hoped she'd still be going, maybe they were using Camden to tell her no. Reluctantly she handed the plain envelope to Ruthie.

Ruthie pulled the envelope out and just scanned the letter again, then, just for fun looked up with a kind of grim face "Teressa Walters, it is my reluctant duty to inform you that I am not the only Guggenheim winner in this room." She let the words sink in while watching her friend. Her eyes were sparkling with merriment.

For her part, Teressa couldn't believe what she had just heard, if what Camden had just said was true, that would mean that…. "Oh my God" the younger girl shrieked "you mean I won?"

"You mean that mobile that we hung in the bar at Christmas is going to be in a museum" Eric asked, making sure of his facts.

Ruthie just nodded at her father and with a flourish; she held out the letter from the Guggenheim foundation to her young friend and then squinted her eyes as Walters snatched it out of her hand. Teressa flew through a couple of lines and then just let loose with a scream of delight. The door opened and Ruthie saw Lily and her Mom come in, arm in arm. At that moment Ruthie didn't care that her side hurt, or that she'd have to go through some serious physical therapy; the joy she saw around her, in her friends and family, made the pain insignificant.

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Janet Aguilera walked into the hospital. She hated places like this. In her short life she had never known anything good to come out of a hospital except a story about a corrupt doctor or two. Now she was here to thank someone, someone she would rather never see again. The past day had confused the young reporter. She knew that the artist girl didn't like her, and probably never would. But the girl had risked and nearly lost her life to save Janet. She couldn't understand it. If it was a friend or family, then Janet believed that she would have done the same thing as the young brunette, but to risk yourself like that for someone you didn't like; Janet couldn't understand it. And how do you thank someone like that. How do you confess in words the fact that the artist is a better person than you will ever be? That's not the kind of conversation that you're meant to sleep after. She was a writer, someone who lived words and expressions, they were her craft, her trade, her art; surely she could find a way to thank someone that had nearly died for her. The young Latina paced around the lobby with a notebook and pen, trying and discarding hundreds of different ways to express the truth. Ultimately she just couldn't bring herself to do it, and with her head bowed in defeat, she left the hospital with the words unspoken and unwritten.

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When Toni and Marissa arrived they found a celebration going on. It took them a bit to figure out what it was that they were celebrating but once they figured it out they threw themselves into the party. The Camden's found themselves swept into the impromptu celebration. At one point they tried to leave, feeling that it wasn't anything directly pertaining to them, but neither Gary nor Marissa would hear of it, so in the end the families celebrated the fact that Ruthie would be fine and that Teressa had won a great honor and Simon was getting married. They also succeeded in irritating the duty nurses, but it's tough not to do that when you're in the hospital.


	20. Getting Better All the Time

THE LEGACY – CHAPTER 19

The Camdens stayed in Chicago for another four days. Ruthie was released on the third day, but they wanted to make sure she was settling in OK. For the time being she was going to stay with Marissa and Teressa, at least until her arm was a bit more functional. Being Camdens, Eric and Annie weren't able to enjoy the Hobson's hospitality without doing something to help out. Annie had helped out in the kitchen, and had learned a couple of new recipes from George and Tony in the process. Not being much use in the kitchen, Eric had helped out behind the bar. He couldn't mix drinks for beans, but he could pull beers and was great with advice. Gary didn't say anything or try to discourage them in any way because he realized that they had to do this in order to feel balanced. Just like RC, they had difficulty accepting help outright, and so they had to make compensation for the help that they had received.

Lucy had used the time to get to know Lily and to renew her friendship with Simon. With her marriage and his drifting, they had grown apart over the last few years, but with their time together, they had grown closer to each other. Lucy found herself liking Simon's fiancé almost as much as she liked Cecelia, and that was saying something. Lucy found the younger woman to be opinionated without being harsh about her beliefs. They had gotten into some rather deep discussions and Lucy found her to always be respectful of a view different from hers. Idly Lucy wondered if that was a good or bad trait for a lawyer to have.

Kevin had spent some time at the station with Toni. Curiosity had finally won out and the young officer had watched the tapes of the robbery. Afterwards he thanked God that he worked in Glen Oak, where the kind of thing that he had seen was much less common. He was so shaken that he barely spoke for the next twenty four hours, and he even woke Lucy up when he had a nightmare about the incident. At first he felt ashamed for his reaction, but Brigatti took him to one side and told him about the shakes that she got after something like this. Making the young officer see that everyone involved, not to mention every person that had ever put on the uniform, hated situations like the robbery, but that doing nothing was a worse option. This meant that sometimes they risked their lives, and risked their sound sleep, so that no-one else would have to face the horrors that they did. It made Kevin feel better about his reaction, but that didn't change the fact that he really didn't want to work in a big department, like Chicago.

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Ruthie waved to her parents and sister and brother in law as they made their way down the ramp. She was glad that they had come, but now she was glad that they were leaving. She loved her family, but she had found that they were much easier to love from a distance; especially when the other three had cornered her individually and urged her to leave Chicago and come 'home'. It wasn't easy for her to reiterate that Chicago was her home. It wasn't easy to watch three different faces fall at three different times. She had fervently wished that they had all confronted her at once so she could have gotten it all out quickly instead of dragging it out the way it had been.

Toni Brigatti looked down at her young friend; the girl had more guts than most of the officers she knew, and a heart as big as anything, and a pretty sharp noggin to go with it. Once she was out of the hospital, Teressa, RC and Crumb had ginned up some tools that were mostly dowel rods and duct tape, but they allowed RC to do nearly anything she wanted with her left, despite the fact that she was only able to move her wrist and hand. "Come on RC" Toni said "you need your rest and Marissa will skin me alive if something happens to you."

As they're walking away, Ruthie looks at her older companion "do they ever let you grow up?"

Toni got a rather cold smile on her face "not willingly, no they don't. You could be 65 and they'd be 90, and you're still their baby, and they're treating you like a baby. You should have seen how my Ma reacted when I went back to Ponitac over New Years; I felt like I was fifteen again, and that's no fun."

"Why is that?"

"Because admitting that you're not a baby means admitting that they're getting old; that's pretty darned uncomfortable."

"The thing is, I half expect it from my parents, but when Lucy tries the same crap, I just wanna kick her in the shins and remind her that she's not that much older than me."

"That's just 'protective big sister' coming out in her. Better that than having her not care, I can tell you that."

"Am I gonna be like that when I have kids."

"No idea RC, wait till ya have kids and we'll find out together."

"What about you and Gary, any little Hobson's in your future?"

"Never gonna happen sorry to say."

"Why not, you're young enough."

"It's not a matter of age kid; it's a matter of plumbing."

"Not understanding here."

"Back when I was in the Marshal's, I took a bullet in the lower abdomen, way lower. Anyway, it screwed up my plumbing enough to where kids were no longer a possibility." Despite her matter of fact tone, it bothered Toni more than she could ever say that she couldn't give Gary Hobson a child. She knew how important kids were to him. It had been one of the toughest things she'd ever done, telling him about that. Standing there in his loft one night, so sure that he was gonna throw her out now that he knew she was damaged goods. He had just looked at her speechless for about half a minute and then just said "I love you Toni, just the way you are" and held her close and that was the end of it. If she had ever doubted that she loved Gary Hobson, that had put the end to it, how could she not love a man like that.

"So have you two thought about adoption?"

"We've kicked it around a bit, but with our schedules the way they are, there's no way we could provide a stable enough home for a baby or even a toddler. Gary and I do that volunteer work down at the community center, and then there's Teressa and you and all of the staff at McGinty's; you guys are our family."

"Well as your surrogate daughter, I think you're a fantastic parent, and if you ever do decide to adopt, that kid will be the luckiest person alive."

"Thanks RC" Toni said "that really does mean a lot."

"Your welcome, and thanks for trusting me enough to tell me, I know it wasn't easy."

Together the two women headed out to the parking lot and back to McGinty's.

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"Mike you're just a sadist, and all this is just an excuse."

Mike Wagahoff had to laugh at that, it wasn't the first time the Physical Therapist had heard that accusation, and he doubted it would be his last. "Maybe darlin' but you need to get that wing flappin again" he said in a pure Louisiana drawl.

Ruthie just looked at the man; he reminded her a lot of Brent the bartender, except for the accent obviously. This was her third visit to work her arm back into shape. After three weeks of almost complete immobility, the muscles weren't that happy about having to work again. She shook her head to try and get some of the sweat out of her eyes and went back to doing the thirty arm curls that she had to do. 'Dang but this hurts' she thought to herself, although from what Doctor Steve had said, she knew it could have been a lot worse. Her life was slowly returning to normal. She had been in her studio a lot, catching up on time when she had wanted to paint but couldn't. She was in the process of modifying her 'Beach at Sunset' painting so it would be a gift for Simon and Lily for their wedding; among her other projects. She had missed a week of class, but her professors, to a person, had thanked her for what she had done. And after her time in this torture chamber, she was meeting one of the _Sun-Times _reporters that needed a sketch. She just hoped that the Latina wasn't there. Ruthie was dumbfounded by the fact that the girl had never said 'thank you' or expressed her gratitude in any way. Gary had told her that it was an unfortunately common occurrence, and that the girl was probably dealing with the notion that someone had almost given their life for hers. Ruthie didn't know what to think, except that whenever she thought about the whole situation, she got mad; so she tried not to think on it too often.

She hadn't gone out to help with a save, not since the shooting, but she had learned how to do phone saves, and actually showed quite a talent for it. She didn't care for it much, having to lie to people, but it beat having something bad happen to them. Going out on a save was actually something that she looked forward too, being out there and helping Gary again; she had to admit to herself that she loved it.

"That's all then" Ruthie said after finishing her curls.

"Great" Mike said "now do twenty lateral raises and then hit the showers"

Ruthie glared daggers at the therapist, and Mike just laughed.

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Meredith Carson looked out of her office at the Investigative bull pen "Aguilera, my office" she shouted.

Reluctantly the Latina got up from her desk and headed for her editor's office. Truth be told she had expected this to happen a week ago, but apparently Meredith was more patient that Janet expected.

The young girl slunk into the office and sat quickly, closing the door in the process. She didn't say anything; she just sat there looking at Meredith like a dog that expects to be whipped.

"Do you know why you're here" Meredith asked.

"Yeah, I do" Janet answered with a sigh.

"I was hoping that getting you going on a good story would kind of jump start your motor, but that doesn't seem to be happening, so you might want to talk to someone."

"A shrink, you mean?"

"Yeah, I do. Listen kiddo, I really like you, but you haven't been able to write for beans since the whole shooting thing. Did you ever manage to thank the girl that jumped in front of you?"

Janet's face fell, and she lowered her head; to look at her that instant was to gaze at the living embodiment of shame.

"Why the hell not" Meredith wanted to know "it's not that hard, just two words 'thank you', you owe her at least that."

"I know, I just can't bring myself to say it, I don't know why; but I just can't."

"Then I suggest you talk to someone, and soon."

"Why, what difference does it make to you whether or not I thank that brat?"

"It makes a difference because I don't want to fire an up and coming reporter because her neck is so stiff with pride that she can't get her head out of her ass" Meredith shot back, letting real anger creep into her voice. "It's clear that what happened is eating you up inside, you need to close this out and move on; otherwise you're no good to anyone here."

"OK jefe, I'll call the company quack and make an appointment."

"Don't bother, I call earlier, you have an appointment tomorrow at 3:30."

Janet gave her boss a sharp look "would I be cleaning out my desk if I said no" she asked.

"That would definitely be a possibility" Meredith answered honestly. "I wouldn't like it, but it would surely be a possibility; now I'm expecting something brilliant from you about road construction contracts, three days from now; don't disappoint me."

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Ruthie was having fun, the guy from the _Sun-Times_ was doing an article on Teressa and Ruthie had been asked to supply a sketch of her friend. What was fun about the whole thing was watching her shy friend just gushing all over the reporter in a very un-Teressa like manner. Ruthie considered and then dismissed the idea that her friend was drunk, then realized what the probable answer was, Teressa had found somebody. As she sketched, Ruthie remembered how she had acted like that when she was dating Vincent, and Peter, at least before sophomore year. She sat and sketched and laughed at her friend's animation. Finally the reporter was done, and he turned back to Ruthie to find that the sketch was done. He was a new reporter, so he hadn't worked with the young artist before; and what he saw just floored him. He looked at it for a good half minute before he took it from the girl's hands. "You know, I wouldn't be surprised if you eventually win one of these Guggenheim things" he said.

"I already did" Ruthie replied "three years ago. I haven't let them submit anything of mine since."

"Why not" the reporter asked.

"Because I couldn't stand competing with my friends, I've already one once, let someone else have it." Ruthie sat back and finished her Oberon Ale, as the reporter looked at her with some incredulity. He said goodbye to Teressa and Ruthie, then left McGinty's to go back to the paper.

"So how did it feel, working again I mean?"

"It felt great" Ruthie answered "and it was funny watching you gush all over the guy."

Teressa blushed a bit, knowing where this was going.

"So who is she?"

"Who is who" Teressa asked innocently.

"The girl that's got you so giddy" Ruthie answered. "As your official best friend, I have to approve of all your significant others." She almost managed to get this out with a straight face.

"It's Grace" Teressa finally answered "Grace Pak".

"Warren's daughter, you know he's gonna freak when he finds out, not to mention the fact that if you hurt her, he could kick you through a wall. And isn't she fourteen or something."

"No, she's nineteen, and he already knows, you're right about what he'll do if I hurt her, but that would be nothing compared to what she would do to me."

"So how did this happen; come on Walters, I need my vicarious romantic thrills" Ruthie said.

"About two weeks ago, when you were still pretty immobile, I went down to the dojo, but I couldn't keep my mind on things and was doing pretty poorly, and surprisingly Grace wasn't doing any better in the advanced group. Anyway, she looked so sad that I asked her if she wanted to get some coffee after the showers, and we went to this little place near the dojo. So I started talking about you being shot, and how I was worried and she starts talking about how she had just been dumped by her boyfriend, one of those out of the blue situations, and before I knew it I was leaning across the table kissing her. It was just one kiss but it was incredible, at least for me. Well we were both feeling pretty weird, so we went out separate ways, but after training the next day, she walked up to me and asked if I wanted to go to a movie with her. I said yes and the rest is history." By the time she had finished with the story, Teressa was lit up like a Christmas tree.

"That is so great" Ruthie said "just promise me one thing, OK."

"Sure, what is it?"

"Promise you won't be afraid of what people think and say."

"So not a problem Camden; I already learned that from you. Hey, I did have one favor to ask."

"Sure Walters, what you need?"

"Could you come with me to New York for the award dinner and everything?"

"You sure, wouldn't you wanna ask Marissa or Grace."

"Nah, it was you that gave me the basic idea, so even if you don't wanna admit it, part of this award is yours, so you should be there. Besides, you've been through this before; you can tell me what to expect."

"I that case, I would love to go to New York with you. After all, it's the kind of sacrifice a best friend is supposed to make."

"You are such a dork, Camden."

"True, but that's just one more thing we have in common there Walters" Ruthie replied with a grin, and the two friends dissolved into laughter.

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Toni Brigatti was sitting at Hobson's table, watching the Red Wings and the Blackhawks on the big screen. She smiled as she watched her husband make his way through the bar, greeting some of the regulars and just seeming to make people happier with his presence. He waved a signal to Robin and sat down across from his wife. "Bust any crooks today dear?"

"Nothing major Hobson, petty crap for the most part; which is fine with me. Homicide is so slow I've got about half the guys looking at cold cases to see if they can come up with something after giving em a fresh look."

"Sounds like a good idea."

"Thanks, anything new around here?"

"Well Teressa is going to New York for this award thing, and she's taking RC with her."

"RC, why not Marissa?"

"Well she asked, but Marissa said no, so RC was the second choice. Oh, and Teressa officially has a girlfriend."

"Really, that's unexpected" Toni said, I wouldn't have thought she hit from that side of the plate."

"Well, considering her male roll model when she was young, it's not that big a leap of imagination."

"True, thank God you and Marissa got her out of there when you did. I sometimes wonder if the paper is worth it, even for all the good you do, then I see Teressa or any of the other's you've helped and any doubt I have goes away. So her with a girlfriend, is Marissa freaked?"

"A little, but then again, Teressa barely dated in High School so I think it just might be the dating part that has her on edge, not who she's dating."

"Well, as long as the girl's happy."

"True; ahh to be young and in love."

"Yeah, and you'd wanna go through all that crap again Hobson?"

"Not for a million dollars Toni. As far as I'm concerned, love can wait till you're old enough to appreciate it." With that said he leaned forward and kissed his wife.


	21. New York Stories

THE LEGACY – CHAPTER 20

The two young women headed towards baggage claim; it had been one heck of a week, and they were both glad to be back in Chicago. They were expecting Gary and Marissa to be there to pick them up, but only found Marissa when they got to baggage claim. They walked towards her, but before they could let her know that they were near she spoke.

"So how was the Big Apple, girls?"

They just stared at the blind woman for a second; finally Teressa asked "how in the heck do you do that Marissa?"

"Just talent" her foster mom answered "I've been practicing for years. Is that a new outfit Ruth, it smells"; Marissa took an exaggerated sniff "green".

Now things were just freaky "how could you possibly know that" Ruthie asked.

Marissa just bowed her head in laughter when Ruthie saw it, a little earpiece. Instantly she knew that Gary was in the crowd somewhere telling Marissa what was going on around her. "That's a cute toy" Ruthie said, waving at Marissa's ear. "Did Gary pick that up so you could help with saves?"

"Actually it was Toni's idea" Marissa answered "this was kind of the trial run for it. What do you think?"

"I think it's a great way to scramble everyone's noodle" Teressa replied with a grin.

"Are you two hooligans bothering this poor helpless blind lady" Gary said with a grin as he came up behind the trio.

For an answer, both Ruthie and Teressa turned and grabbed him in a pair of hugs, they had missed him. "Don't I get hugs" Marissa asked. The two girls immediately turned and hugged Marissa at the same time; then, as a group they went over and collected the girl's things.

The four of them chatted about what had happened in Chicago during the week that they'd been gone. By mutual agreement, they would wait and discuss the trip when they got to McGinty's. But once they got there, Gary asked the girls to go up to the loft, because he wanted to have a private discussion with them. A little perplexed, they walked in and sat down on his couch and waited for him to say something. "What I'm about to tell you doesn't go beyond this room, do you understand" he asked Teressa.

"Sure Gary, this is a secret, I understand that."

"Well, you know that paper I'm always carrying around"; at Teressa's nod he went on "well it's not an ordinary paper, its tomorrow's paper."

"What do you mean tomorrow's paper" Teressa asked. She and Ruthie had decided that it would be best if Teressa acted surprised, but not that surprised.

"I mean it's that paper that would be printed the next day, I find things in it that are going to happen, and change them."

"Ahhh, so that's how you do it" Teressa said.

"What do you mean" Gary asked.

"Well, I always wondered how you knew my dad was outside, when it was obvious that you hadn't seen him, and a couple of other things that never really got explained."

"Well, now you know."

"So who else knows, I mean I'm sure Marissa does and Toni, but who else. I don't wanna spill the beans to someone who shouldn't know."

"Good point lets see, Chuck and his wife, Meredith Carson, my parents and you're best friend there."

"Yeah, I figured something was up with Camden there, that was what caused that dust up you two had wasn't it. I wondered what had happened and why you two were so close after that; you're right now I know."

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Janet figured that in a past life she had pissed off a gypsy or something. That was the only explanation she could come up with for the shambles that her professional life had become; how in the heck had she been reduced to this?

She was now on loan to the features department, at least that's what the E-mail she was reading said. She shook her head, no way was she taking this without a fight.

With a thunderous look on her face she walked up to Meredith's door and knocked.

Meredith didn't need to look up to know who it was; she'd been expecting this visit as soon as she got her copy of the E-mail. "Come on in Janet, before you beat the door down."

"What the heck is this" the younger reporter practically screamed "some sort of punishment assignment?"

"No, it's an assignment, not an uncommon thing in a newspaper."

"But Features, what am I supposed to do in Features."

"It's Steve's idea of the week, they ask for letters from people telling about how someone helped them anonymously, just something out of the blue; and giving the person that was helped a chance to thank the person that had helped them. Some of the letters they'll print as is, but he wants you to interview some of the people, the ones with the really interesting stories and see if we can't track down the mysterious helper; find out their story and why they helped in the first place."

"Is this more therapy crap, something to help me get closure or something like that?"

"Nope, and honestly I wouldn't have given you this one because of what happened to you, no Steve actually requested you personally. It seems he values your interview skills."

"Really, I was requested?"

"Yes, you really were, now anything else to ask or say?"

"Am I still up here or do I get a desk in features for the time being?"

"Features; Steve wants you right in the middle of things, so try not to corrupt the entire features staff, please." Meredith says this last with a teasing tone and Janet laughs. She can't recall the last time she laughed and had almost forgotten how good it felt.

"Muy bien jefe, but don't think you're getting rid of me, I'll be back."

"I'm counting on it J, now get going."

After the girl left, Meredith took a deep breath; she had fought against this idea. She had pushed as hard as she could without it being obvious, and then she had pushed to have it come under Investigative rather than Features. She was afraid that sooner or later some smart cookie would see the name Gary too many times for coincidence and start looking where they had no business looking. That was why she didn't want Aguilera on the assignment; the girl was screamingly intelligent and would put two and two together quickly. Meredith had wanted some pension jockey on the assignment because they wouldn't push nearly as hard as the young Latina; but nothing had worked out the way she wanted it. She picked up the phone; Billy Flynn in the mailroom had been given the job of reading and sorting through the stories. Meredith was going to make sure that all of the letters came to her after that, so she could properly assess the best candidates for stories, after all, she was the Investigative editor. That way she could also make sure that any mention of a tall dark haired man or the name Gary Hobson never got to the Features Department. If Billy didn't want to play, she'd just remind him of the favors that he owed her. It hurt a bit calling in markers like that, but part of her job was to protect Gary and the paper, and that's what she was going to do.

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The talk about the paper was over, now it was time to talk about the trip. Marissa and Toni had brought up some snacks with them and the five were now comfortably settles in in the loft. "So how did it go" Marissa asked.

Teressa looked at Ruthie and then back at her foster mother, "it was intense and intimidating, and quite an eye opener."

"How so?"

"It made me realize why Camden is so picky about who gets her paintings; I've never met a more pretentious group of jerks in my life. They were all going on about the social commentary and political aspects of my work, what a load of crap. They just wanted to be near what they thought was the next hot thing; God it almost made me sick."

"Why didn't it?"

"Camden warned me about what would happen, if she hadn't I might have actually bought into the BS at least at first; but as thick as some of them were laying it on, I'd like to think I would have twigged to it.

"So, what was the best part of the trip" Gary asked.

"The food" both girls answered at the same time, laughing. "I picked up a couple of recipes that George and Tony might be able to use as well."

"You should have seen Camden" Teressa said "she would giggle and charm and flirt until they gave up the recipes for anything she wanted."

"I wasn't that bad, was I?"

"Tramp"

"Prude"

"Flirt"

"Shrew"

"Girls" Marissa cut in "I think we get the picture. Now does anyone want to tell me what the actual awards ceremony was like?"

"Well to begin with, our outfits did create a bit of a stir."

"Tell me you didn't take Camden's suggestion."

"Of course I did."

"So you both showed up in matching tuxes?"

"Yeah, we did."

"Could you please explain why again?"

"It kept the hitting down to a minimum, guys left us alone and girls thought we were a couple. There were a couple of persistent types, but mostly everyone talked about art and not some great party they were going to or some other way to proposition us."

"Plus" added Ruthie "it's a lot cheaper than buying a dress, not to mention the fact that we look way cute in tuxedos."

"True" Teressa added "we did look cute."

"Did you meet anybody" Marissa asked.

"At the reception, sure. There were a lot of artists and celebrities there; I think Woody Allen even showed up. And there were a lot of prior winners there, and we kinda got together and made fun of everyone else. That was a ball."

Ruthie remembered the time fondly as well. She had talked to some of the previous winners to find out what they were doing with their lives. Some owned galleries, one was a sketch artist for the police, several were teachers, either at colleges or high schools or giving private lessons (although the private lessons were a bit rare). She had gotten some ideas about what she could do in the event that the professorship fell through. What had struck her the most about her fellow winners though, was how normal they had all seemed. She knew the stereotype of the borderline psychotic artist, a stereotype that she had tried to fight against; but she had always wondered in the back of her mind whether or not she was unusual or the norm for what she did. It was comforting to be assured that she was about as normal as an artist could get.

"So what else did you do while you were there" Gary asked.

"Oh, the usual tourist stuff, we went to the Statue of Liberty and up the Empire State building, ate lunch in China Town. Did you know that Camden can order in Chinese, well Cantonese to be exact. We went to the flower district and the garment district and ground zero. Oh and we met the guy that gets tomorrows Daily News."

"You met who" Gary and Marissa said at the same time.

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Janet was going through the first batch of letters for her new assignment, or the 'Frozen Waste of Outer Mongolia' as she preferred to think of it. But it was her job, so she was going to do it to the best of her ability. Here was one about a lady that was gonna kill herself until some kid talked her down. Janet read through the letter, and then on her second time through, caught something, a name to be specific. The kid that had talked her down was named Ruth. Interesting, the girl thought, and she shuttled that letter off to one side. Later she found another from a mother whose daughter had been protected from a guard dog that had escaped its pen, and again the rescuers name was Ruth. That was odd, Janet thought, and set that one by as well. Then an idea struck, she went back through and looked at the letters where the person being thanked was an anonymous female. Janet looked at the descriptions and found one that described a young woman with curly brown hair. Janet sat back, not really believing what had just happened. Thirty letters had gotten through the screening process, and in one tenth of them the person being thanked was probably the same girl. Now just what were the odds of that? Then a smile, but not a pleasant one, crept onto the girls face, now that was one heck of a story she thought.

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"We were on our way to the Statue of Liberty, and had to take the subway down to Battery Park. While we were on the platform, there was a yell, and then this guy is pulling another guy up off of the tracks. Well everyone is watching the guy who fell, but we kept an eye on the guy that pulled him up, and as he was walking away, we saw him look at a newspaper, just like you always do Gary. So we followed him just to make sure."

Gary looked at Teressa, the earlier conversation replaying in his mind"so that's why my news didn't phase you much, you already knew".

"Yeah, I did Gary, but I appreciate you telling me anyway."

"So you followed the guy" Marissa said "then what happened?"

FLASHBACK

Ken Stephens had not had a normal day for almost two years now, not since he had found a copy of the Daily News on his doorstep when he was staying at that old hotel. It had taken him a while to come to terms with what was happening to him, but now he was actually starting to feel comfortable in his role as the quiet protector of New York. He had just pulled a guy off the subway tracks and had a couple of hours until he was needed again. Just then, two girls came up to him. They were a few years younger than he was, but they were cute and what's more, they were talking to him.

"Excuse me" the dark haired one said "we're visiting and were wondering if there was a good place for coffee that was near here?"

He thought for a second, getting his bearings and finally said "there's a place not too far from here, just three blocks over and two down, the coffee's good and the atmosphere is great."

"Thanks" said the blonde "do you want to join us?"

Ken looked at his watch "sure" he said "I've got time."

The three of them started off in the proper direction, chatting the whole time. He found out that they were both art students, here for some to do at the Guggenheim; the dark haired girl was named Ruth and her friend was Teressa. He told them that he ran a small business so he could set his own hours, which was true in the strictest sense. He didn't tell them that he had been the _wunderkind_ at Chase Manhattan Securities until fate and an inconvenient newspaper had turned his life upside down. Part of him still resented the alterations that had been forced on him, but the rewards of his new calling made the changes worth it. They finally got to 'The Daily Grind' and found a table that gave them a bit of privacy. They both ordered lattes and he just got straight black coffee, but made sure that it was Jamaican Blue Mountain, and started to chat again. He was feeling pretty relaxed until Ruth asked him a question; "so how long have you been getting tomorrow's Daily News"?

To say that he was shocked was a gross understatement; consider the sun and call it warm, then consider his current state and call him shocked. A plethora of emotions flickered across his face until he was able to control himself; his immediate defense was to deny "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Sure you do" said Teressa "that paper you put in your jacket after saving the guy on the tracks, it has tomorrows date on it, and you use it to help people."

"What makes you think something like that" he spluttered "that's the most absurd thing I've ever heard."

"Then do you want to show us the masthead and prove that it's today's paper" Ruth asked.

Sighing in defeat, Ken looked at the two girls and asked "how do you know about this" while pulling the paper out of his coat.

"My guardian, in Chicago gets tomorrow's _Sun-Times_" Teressa said.

"Oh" was all Ken said, but his brain was racing at a mile a minute. He had thought that he was the only person in the world receiving what he was; now he found out that there was someone else. The loss at realizing he wasn't unique was immediately drowned out by the notion that there was someone who might know a few answers about the thing he received. He listened as the two girls told him about Gary Hobson, and what they knew of the paper and his service to it.

"So let me get this straight" he said finally "this guy has a wife and friends that know about the paper and they help him with it? I didn't think that was allowed."

"Why not" Ruth asked "did you get an instruction manual with yours? The only thing I will tell you is not to use it for selfish ends, that's what happened to Joey." She then told him about the infamous 'Joey Clams' and how he was now in Dayton Ohio.

"So there are people that can decide that you don't deserve the paper and take it away?"

"That's what Gary told me" Ruth said.

They talked a while more before Ken noticed the time "dang, I've got to run, can I talk to you all some more later?"

"Sorry" Teressa said "this was pretty much our last free day, we've got stuff at the museum tomorrow and then back to Chicago."

"Here" said Ruth "this is the number for McGinty's, get your head straight and call Gary, he can answer your questions a lot better than we can." She handed over a small business card as Ken got up.

"Thanks for everything girls" he said "but now I've got to run".

"Bummer" Ruthie said as they watched him leave.

"Why 'bummer', Camden?"

"Well" Ruthie said, blushing a bit "he was kinda cute."

Teressa just looked at her friend for a moment, then she started laughing and said "you have the greatest timing in the world Camden, you know that don't you."

Ruthie grimaced at her friend "why do you think I said bummer, Walters?"

END FLASHBACK

"So you told the guy to call here" Gary managed to get out "why did you do that?"

"So he could do his job better" Ruthie said "and he might have information that you don't about who sends the paper out. Then again, it gives you someone to talk to in case you need to speak to someone who can totally identify with your situation."

Unfortunately Gary couldn't find any fault in her logic, but it still made him uncomfortable having the girls distribute information about the paper to someone he didn't know.

"So" Marissa asked "anything else happen that you two want to share?"

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Eventually Janet decided to go with a story about a widow that helped people in her neighborhood with their heating bills. It was a fine story, and the features people loved it, but she also kept the other three letters where no one else would find them. She was waiting for something similar in the next batch, then it would be more than just a story idea, it would be a story.


	22. Transitional Moments

THE LEGACY – CHAPTER 21

Winter was finally giving up its grip on Chicago. Well, maybe giving up is a bit strong, because winter doesn't give up Chicago easily. Maybe it's better to say that winter's grip was easing up a bit. Tax day had come and gone and Ruth Camden was busy. Thanks to Mike's coaching, she was back at a hundred percent physically, and after a couple of long talks with both Marissa and Toni, she was OK emotionally as well. School was winding down at last; the job offer hadn't been made yet, but Dr. Pearson had told her that it would be made after graduation and even if it fell through, Ruthie had several other options right there in Chicago. She and Teressa were closer than ever, and still taking Tae Kwon Do; but Teressa and Grace were no longer dating. It had been a mutual decision; they had decided that as much as they liked each other, a romantic conclusion just wasn't in the cards. They had remained friends, but that was all, and both admitted to themselves that that was probably best.

Ruthie was giving up her Friday studio time so Gary could take some courses in sailing from the Coast Guard. He didn't want to do it on the weekends because he wanted it to be a surprise for Toni. Marissa was dating again, much to everyone's quiet delight. Leon was a bass in the church choir, which is where Marissa first met him. He was a cop and had transferred to Chicago from Phoenix to take a promotion. He was a Vice Lieutenant in Toni's precinct, and in the short time he had been there had already added to his considerable reputation as a good cop. All in all, that spring was one of those times when you look back and can't believe that such happy times actually exist and aren't part of some selective memory delusion. The thing is, everyone knew that chaos was coming, not because they felt that there was some mystical force at work, but because Simon Camden's wedding was fast approaching. And everyone knew that weddings were times when everything that could come unhinged; did. They had planned it for the first Saturday in May, which both families thought was way too fast. Ruthie suspected that it was that way so neither family would have a chance to throw a serious monkey wrench into the works. Not that the couple was afraid that the families could break them up, they were too much in love for that, it was just that they could do without the hassle of dealing with scheming relatives.

Lily had tapped Marjorie Babcock, an old friend and fellow law student, to be her Maid of Honor, but she had asked both Ruthie and Teressa to be Bridesmaids along with her sister Veronica. This of course meant that they would be subjected to horrible dresses and endless fittings and such. Ruthie had pleaded to allow the three of them to wear the same tuxes as the groomsmen. Simon didn't care and ultimately Lily didn't mind either. The only difference would be that the color of the cummerbund and tie would match Marjorie's dress. Marjorie was a little ticked that she had to wear a dress and the others didn't, but that was the price of being the Maid of Honor.

At the moment though, Ruthie had put all of the wedding chaos out of her mind, because the life of a young boy depended on her. He was lost in an abandoned building and would soon fall and break his neck if she didn't find him first. She had to move swiftly, but carefully so she didn't condemn him by getting injured herself. She eased her way into what used to be the foyer, its former grandeur was stripped away and now it was this hollow shell that smelled of urine and time.

"Andy" she yelled "Andy Vesage; my name is Ruth, and I'm here to help you."

"I don't need your help" a small voice floated back to her.

"This place isn't safe Andy, a friend of mine inspects buildings and he told be about how bad this place is. It's dangerous, so come on down the front stairs and let's get you home; what do you say."

"Are you gonna tell my mom I was here?"

"Nope, this is our secret; I just want to get you out of this place."

"OK"

She heard movement upstairs and soon saw a young boy headed for the stairs. The landing groaned, and plaster dusted down, but the structure held. Ruthie knew that he was supposed to fall through the floor, so she felt pretty confident that he would be fine once he was on the stairs. He came slowly down the stairs, looking at her with a bit of suspicion, but no hostility; "how do you know me" he asked.

I just moved into an apartment near here" she said "and I try to keep an eye on my neighbors. I saw you getting bullied earlier and figured you'd find somewhere to be alone."

"Did you do that when you were a kid?"

She smiled at that, he thought that she was old; "yeah, sometimes you just need to be on your own, you just need to be a bit more careful about it."

Together they headed out the front of the building "you wanna get some ice cream or just head back to your house" she asked the young boy.

He thought for a second "I probably ought to get home" he said "I don't want to be late for dinner; Mom's making lasagna, that's my favorite."

"You OK getting home" she asked "or do you want me to walk you there."

"I'm OK, are you gonna be OK getting back to your place?"

She just nodded at the boy; he was so cute "I'll be fine Andy, thanks for asking."

With that he waved and headed for his home. She shot a wistful smile at his back, and headed for O'Hare, now that she was done for the day. The wedding party was beginning to arrive, and she was the official greeter. She wondered why life could never be as uncomplicated as it was when you were twelve.

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"So Mrs. Doster, you're sure this is the person that warned you that your car was going to explode?"

The middle aged woman squinted at the picture for a moment, then sat back "well not exactly, I mean that's the girl, it's just that she didn't warn me specifically."

"What did she do then?"

"Well, she was talking to her friend and I heard her mention something she had just seen that morning on CNN about a component in some cars that made them prone to fuel line failures and explosions. Well I went out to go to the grocery and I realized that my car was one of the ones she had mentioned. Anyway, I get in but the car wouldn't start. I got scared and went back into the diner to call my husband when I hear this big woosh. I turned around and there's my car, with flames pouring out of it. If that girl hadn't been talking to her friend that day, I'd be either badly burned or dead."

"Did you notice if she was there the entire time?"

"I believe so; she was in the diner when I first arrived and she was there when I left."

"Is there any chance she could have done anything to cause what happened to your car?"

The older woman looked horrified at the idea "no, there was no time, my back was to the car for less than a minute so there wouldn't have been a way without everyone noticing. Why would you even think that?"

"Because unfortunately I see a lot of bad people in my line of work, and I've got to check out every possibility, no matter how far fetched it might sound."

"That I understand, a good reporter has to be suspicious, but no, there's no way they could have caused what happened to the car. The insurance inspector said that my fuel line had failed rather badly and there was nothing that could have been done. I just thank God I wasn't on the highway or on some busy street when it happened; that would have been a disaster."

"True indeed" Janet said, standing up. "Thank you for your time ma'am, I can't guarantee that this will make it to the paper, but I will submit it; it's a good story."

"Do you know who this young lady is" Mrs. Doster asked.

"We've met before" Janet said.

"Please thank her for me when you see her again."

"I will, I promise" Janet said; and with that she left.

She thought about what she had just heard. The purpose of the interview hadn't been to get the story, but to confirm some details, not that Mrs. Doster was aware of that fact. The most important detail was the conversation that the artist girl had been having with her friend. That conversation had been a lie. Nowhere, not on CNN, MSNBC, any other news channel or any newspaper for that matter had the issue of balky fuel lines been discussed, not in the last two years. So how did she know that the explosion was going to happen? The short answer was she couldn't, and the follow up would be that she had caused it herself. The insurance inspector she had talked to shot that one down, there was no way it was the result of tampering, it was honest failure. Janet suspected that the conversation Mrs. Doster had overheard had been a one act play for her benefit, a way to get the woman the information to save herself without telling her directly that her car was going to blow up. It was subtle, indirect and brilliant, as far as Janet was concerned. But that brought back the question, how had she known that that one specific car was going to experience the very problem that she was discussing while she was sitting right next to the owner.

Janet grimaced, if this had been a one time shot, she would just shrug it off and move on, but in the last month she had collected more than ten credible stories that involved the young artist and the facts boiled down to one thing, the girl knew stuff she couldn't possibly know. Unlike most reporters, she didn't dismiss the idea that the girl was a genuine psychic out of hand. Janet was a thorough believer in Haldane's Maxim that states 'the universe is not only stranger than we imagine, but stranger than we are capable of imagining', more things on heaven and earth yadda yadda yadda. She pulled into the _Sun-Times_ garage and shut off her car. A realization had just hit her, and she didn't like it. As solid as she could make this story, there was no way the editors would buy it; Carson might, but the editors, never. So, what could she do, she had this incredible career making story that she was in the process of confirming, but to what end. How was she ever gonna get it published in anything other than 'The National Enquirer' or some other rag like it. Then it hit her, direct confirmation, if the girl admitted to knowing what was going to happen, and Janet had all of the background material, they would be forced to run it, and she would be known everywhere. Now that was a motivational thought the reporter realized.

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Ruthie wondered if she had done something really bad in a past life, something that merited this level of torture. The families were arriving in Chicago for the wedding and Ruthie had volunteered to pick them up and shuttle them around the city and basically show them where they needed to go. Not just the Camden's but the Bainbridge's as well. All the Camden's were in town and staying at the Blackstone because it was close to both the church and McGinty's. Ruthie had no idea where the Bainbridge's were staying, even Lily didn't know. All Ruthie did know were their names: Andrew, Celeste, William and Veronica and that they were from Philadelphia. So here she was, standing in the middle of O'Hare with a silly looking cardboard sign and hoping that there was only one group named Bainbridge. She was looking around, people watching was always an amusing pastime for her, when a very cultured voice said "my name is Bainbridge".

Ruthie looked up to see and elegant woman in her early 50's "hi I'm"

"Yes, I'm sure you're competent, even if you are a trifle underdressed, well don't expect much of a tip" the woman interrupted "where is the baggage claim?"

Ruthie held onto her anger, but just barely, obviously this silly cow thought she was hired help, it would be interesting to eavesdrop for a bit to see what kind of people these were, without their public masks on. Silently she gestured to the left and down the escalator; the four of them followed her down to baggage claim. She listened as Celeste went on about the Camdens. "Two ministers in one family, they'll probably hand us a bunch of tracts and a bible or two and try to convert us; and the mother is a school teacher" the woman snorted with obvious disdain.

Ruthie went to get a luggage cart and took the opportunity to cool down. When she got back, the talk hadn't improved. "So now she'll be staying in this awful place, or worse; moving out to California him and becoming something dreadful, like a stay at home mother. Why couldn't she come home and work in Steven's firm like we had planned?"

"You mean like you had planned" Andrew said with a bit of an edge.

"Well she agreed to it" Celeste said with a splutter.

"Yeah, just to shut you up" Veronica muttered. It was so quiet that only Ruthie could hear her.

"Where is the reception at again" William asked. Ruthie hoped William would be nice, he was certainly cute enough but it was possible that he was just as much of a snob as his mother. He was a Junior at Princeton studying Political Science; Ruthie remembered Lily talking about him once.

"A bar called McGinty's" his dad answered.

"A bar, could it get any worse" Celeste said. "Lillian is marrying some bloodsucking corporate thug and living in this disgusting city and having her reception in a bar; thank God most of our friends won't be here."

Again Ruthie was able to contain her anger by removing the luggage that was coming off. As Celeste ranted on, Veronica was pointing out which bags were theirs. After quite a while, they had the lot and Ruthie silently led them out to the parking garage. In a couple of minutes, they were approaching the McGinty's van and then it got interesting.

"Excuse me" Celeste said "where's the limousine?"

"Ruthie turned with a rather feral grin on her face "there isn't one. Let me finish introducing myself, I'm Ruth Camden, the 'corporate thug's' sister. I'm picking you up as a favor for your daughter." With that she opened the back and started loading up the luggage. The Bainbridge's all looked stunned, but none more so than Mrs. Bainbridge. Silently they all climbed into the van, all except William. He actually helped her with the luggage and muttered "sorry" in her ear.

Ruthie gave him a warm smile and got in the driver's seat, and he got in the shotgun seat. "Where to" Ruthie asked.

"The Drake Hotel" Mr. Bainbridge said. "So what's the agenda Ms. Camden?"

Ruthie explained the itinerary to Lily's family as they rode in on the Kennedy. There was a meet the family thing tonight with the four parents and Simon and Lily going out together, meanwhile all the siblings and friends would be at McGinty's getting to know one another. Tomorrow evening would be the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner as well as the bachelor and bachelorette parties. Finally, at noon, two days from now would be the wedding, with the reception at McGinty's of course.

"Do you know where they're going for their honeymoon" William asked.

"St. John's in the Virgin Islands" Ruthie answered. "Simon's always wanted to go there and Lily said she thought it sounded great."

"What about you, anywhere you want to go?"

Ruthie looked at him for a moment, "nope, there's nowhere I'd rather be than Chicago."

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The meet and greets seemed to go pretty well, everyone returned from the parents gathering, and everyone still seemed to be talking to each other. As for the siblings, Veronica seemed to be a great girl, she Ruthie had hit it off pretty well, as she had with Teressa later. William was cute and charming; unfortunately he was also definitely taken. 'Just my luck' Ruthie thought, but he was still fun to hang with. Ruthie wandered over to where Teressa and Veronica were sitting. Upon seeing her, Veronica asked "so where are the bridesmaid dresses?"

"We're not wearing dresses" Ruthie answered with a bit of a smirk "we're wearing Tuxedos."

"Really" Veronica asked "that is so cool. Can I see mine?"

"Sure" Teressa said "they're back in the breakroom."

The three girls walked back there and they showed Veronica her Tux. "I love it" she said "whose idea was this anyway?"

"This was Camden's great contribution to the wedding" Teressa said with a grin "you see, neither of us are really dress type girls, plus this is cheaper."

"Makes sense" Veronica said. She started stripping the bag off of her Tux and Teressa asked her "what are you doing?"

"Making sure it fits" the girl replied.

The three of them chatted while Veronica got into her Tux. When she walked out into McGinty's Celeste was the first one to see her.

"Veronica, why are you wearing that horrid thing?"

"Because I'm a bridesmaid mother, this is what we're wearing."

"You are not wearing that at your sister's wedding!"

"Actually, mother, they all are, except Marjory and myself" Lily interjected. "We decided it was inexpensive and cute, and much more comfortable."

Celeste spluttered for a few more seconds, then realized she wouldn't win this one and relented. It was becoming painfully clear that Celeste would object to anything that wasn't traditional, unfortunately neither Simon nor Lily were very traditional.

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Both families made it through the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner without any serious fights or homicides. The bachelorette party was subdued due to the presence of both Annie and Celeste, but everyone still managed to have a good time. Ruthie never heard anything about the bachelor party, but Simon looked seriously hung over the next morning. The wedding didn't quite go off without a hitch, but the incidents were minor, and only served to provide a little extra drama to the scene. It was beautiful and people cried; Ruthie caught the bouquet much to her embarrassment. She honestly didn't think that this kind of day be part of her life; but every now and then it was nice thing to dream about.

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The reception got a bit rowdy, and then someone fired up the karaoke machine. Astoundingly enough, it was Celeste that took the first turn and belted out a very passable version of 'Can you feel the Love Tonight'. To say that everyone was flabbergasted would be a tremendous understatement considering how she had behaved earlier. Ruthie supposed she was trying to make up for being a pain in everyone's backside. Marissa pointed out that maybe she had been nervous about being accepted, and that had caused her to put on airs. Well, for whatever reason at the reception she really was the life of the party and the Camden's as a group were happy that Simon had married into such a nice family.

A couple of days later, after everyone was gone, Ruthie sat at a table in McGinty's and thought about the whole wedding as she stared out into the night. How two people of such different backgrounds could find each other seemed unbelievable to her. She was an artist, and therefore a romantic by default, but to find the one person that makes you complete was an impossible task as far as she was concerned. She supposed he was out there somewhere, but the odds of her bumping into him were astronomically against. Ruthie supposed that she was too picky, 'I'm looking for a custom fit in an off the rack world' she thought, and the thought was bittersweet because she wanted to be in love, but she didn't want to have to compromise to find it. With that she headed out into the night and back to her dorm and back to her single life. She figured that alone was just what she was meant to be.

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Janet Aguilera was reflecting in the dark as well. What were her options, honestly? She knew that she would need direct confirmation, but she also realized that the girl probably wanted to keep things quiet, so she wasn't going to blurt out that she was a psychic, certainly not to someone she didn't trust. She was going to have to be tricked into it, something that gave Janet pause. She was all for getting the story, but there were certain ethical lines that were dangerous to flirt with. Using a taped conversation to coerce a confirmation of a story was as old a trick as existed, which still didn't make it right. Janet had always felt that such stories were tainted somehow, like the reporter would have gotten the story with a bit more hard work. Now she was faced with the situation of sinking to a level she didn't want to work at to push through a story that she really thought needed to be written. Maybe Carson would be able to help, the girl thought. So she put out her light and rolled over and tried to sleep, it didn't come easily.


	23. A Rare Spring Day

THE LEGACY – CHAPTER 22

The next morning, Ruthie made her way down to McGinty's with a spring in her step. She had agreed to handle the paper today so Gary could surprise Toni by taking her sailing. The weather looked perfect and Ruthie hoped that everything went well for them. She could see that at times the relationship was strained due to the time demands of both their jobs. What was good, though, was that they went out of their way to make time for each other. They did all the little things that couples do to remind themselves of what was truly important. Ruthie had to admit that Gary was better at the romantic stuff than Toni, but the detective was learning fast, especially with a hopeless romantic like Abby offering advice. Ruthie gave a wistful sigh; she hoped that if she ever had someone in her life that their relationship would be as strong and as deep as Gary and Toni's.

Then she reflected on today. She enjoyed helping Gary out, but she had to admit that the most attractive thing about helping with the paper was the opportunity to spend the day with Teressa. In her experience there was nothing like spending time with your best friend, even if it was saving people that rarely realized that they were in danger.

She bounced into the bar with a huge smile on her face "morning Marissa, Walters; it is just the most beautiful day today."

"Really" Marissa said with a grin "describe it for me".

The blind woman sat back and listened to Ruth describe the morning, the sights and sounds, smells and feelings. She loved listening to the young girl describe things because she put such passion into what she was talking about. "Well, if it's as lovely as all that, I can see why you're in such a good mood."

"It's just the kind of day that reminds you of what life should be like" then looking around said "what's up with the paper today?"

"I don't know yet, admiral Hobson has yet to grace us with his presence."

Just as she said that, Gary could be heard coming down the stairs. Ruthie snapped to attention and saluted saying "good morning commodore, off to the briney deep are we?"

"Real funny RC" Gary replied, pointedly ignoring both Marissa and Teressa who were in the process of laughing themselves silly.

"So what's up today" Ruthie asked, a serious demeanor dropping over her like a shroud.

"Three today; an apartment fire, a hit pedestrian and a mugging."

"How close together are they" Ruthie asked as Teressa came over to hear.

"You'll have to hurry from the fire to the pedestrian, but you should have plenty of time to get from the pedestrian to the mugging."

"What do you think, is the El good for getting from the fire to the hit and run, or should we hoof it?"

"I'd have to say run, you're pretty far away from any El stops."

Ruthie grimaced at the news; it wasn't unexpected, just unpleasant. "OK, when's the first?"

"About 10:15 this morning, down near Wrigley Field."

Ruthie looked at her watch and her friend "what do you say we get down there early, who knows we might be able to gain a little time between save one and save two."

"Sounds like a plan Camden, I'm ready when you are."

Ruthie smiled at her friend "OK Walters, after you" then turning to her mentor "I'll do my best Gary, don't worry about that."

"I don't RC; I don't worry about that at all."

She was almost out the door when she hesitated "be careful out there today" she waved the paper at Gary "I don't want your name popping up in this thing and forcing me to call the Coast Guard to find your waterlogged butt."

"Just get going you little punk" Gary said with a laugh as Ruthie headed out the door. Turning to Marissa "you think they'll be OK" he asked.

"Yeah Gary" Marissa answered "I think they'll be just fine."

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Meredith liked working on Saturdays because the staffing was way down and so she could actually get some work done without being interrupted; but not today.

"Can I talk to you Jefe" she heard from the door.

Looking up from her desk with a sigh, Aguilera was at her door wearing an odd expression. "Sure Ags, what's up?"

The girl came in and sat down, almost furtively, like she didn't want to frighten Meredith away. "I kinda stumbled across this story, and I'm not sure what to do with it. I was hoping you could give a bit of direction."

"Well I make no guarantees but I'll try, what's the story?"

"I think I've come across someone who is genuinely psychic."

Meredith stiffened up at that, afraid of where this conversation would go. "You got a name on the person?"

"Yeah, Ruth Camden, you remember her, right."

"The girl that saved you, yeah I remember her; so why do you think she's a psychic?"

"Well while I've been working on this thing for features, I started to notice a lot of letters thanking a person named Ruth or thanking some anonymous girl that just happened to match her description perfectly. I've done some follow up, and I've got ten different situations aside from mine where the people are willing to swear that Ruth Camden saved them one way or another."

"Could be she's just been where the action is lately and is one of the few people willing to help strangers."

"I thought of that, but these stories are scattered all over the city, the girl would have to be some kind of bad luck magnet for that to be the case."

"What about Munchausen's by proxy?"

"What the hell is that?"

"It's a psychological condition where someone causes disasters so thy can sweep in and be the hero. Mostly you see it in guys like firemen, but anyone could have it, could it be something like that?"

"Possible, but real improbable there Jefe, there's a jumper here and there's no way she could have caused that."

Meredith sat back and thought for a moment. She realized what had happened and cursed herself for her stupidity. She had anything about Gary screened out, but she had forgotten that he had been having some girl help him out with the paper the last few months. And of course Aguilera had twigged to the coincidences. She gave a deep sigh, damage control time.

"The question is, does it rise above the level of coincidence, and before you answer, let me tell you what my coincidence yardstick is. I read about this a few years ago and checked out all the facts myself; it's totally legit. There's this little resort down in the Cayman's; not a top flight place but the kind that does good business on word of mouth. Anyway, in the span of fifteen years, there were six fatal accidents at this place, not an out of the ordinary number. But every time there was an accident, there just happened to be a doctor right there to revive the victim, so even though the accidents were fatal, no one died."

"So, a doctor at a Caribbean resort isn't that rare."

"True, but the kicker is that each time, it was the same doctor that revived the victims. And the guys not even a trauma doc; he's a podiatrist from St. Paul."

"But if he was there all the time, that's not so far out there."

"True again, but the fact is that he stayed a total of seven weeks at the resort over those fifteen years; every time he was there he saved someone. So, is your story more or less plausible that the one I just told you?"

"Mine's more plausible" Janet said reluctantly, "she could have just been in these places by chance. It's not likely, but it's more likely than your example."

"Then you've got some more work to do, don't you. Look, I'm not saying drop it, but stuff like psychics goes more with the tabloid press that something like this place. That story has got to be iron plated and copper bottomed and researched and noted to a fare thee well before the higher ups would even be willing to look at it. So work on it, but be aware that it most likely won't go anywhere."

Janet reluctantly nodded and stood up.

"By the way, I talked to Steve in Features; they really like your work, so keep it up."

Janet gave her boss a sincere smile and headed back to the Features area.

After the girl was off the floor, Meredith stopped smiling. She picked up the phone and dialed. It was picked up on the second ring and then passed to the person she needed to speak to. "We've got a problem" was all she said, but the person on the end of the call knew exactly what she was talking about.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"So what the heck are we doing down here Hobson."

"It's a surprise, I told you that already."

"But you know I hate surprises."

"No, you're just impatient."

"True enough. Hey do we know someone who owns a boat?"

"We do indeed."

"Who is it?"

"Us, we own a boat."

"Since when?"

"February, listen it's a long story, but let's get on the boat first, and out into the lake, then I'll tell you everything."

"So we're going sailing?"

"Yep"

"But you don't know how to sail."

"Sure I do, I've been taking lessons since I bought the boat."

"Well aren't you the schemer Hobson."

"Just keeping you on your toes Brigatti."

"So where is it?"

"Right here"

"This one, the one that says 'Toni's Treasure' on it?"

"Of course, who else would I name it after. Now climb aboard and let's get this show on the road."

"Uh, hate to break it to you Hobson, but there aren't any roads."

Gary looked up to see his wife giving him a broad smirk. He shook his head, "smartass" he muttered. "Now if you're done making fun, unhook the lines while I fire up the engine and let's get going; unless the peanut gallery has any more comments to make."

Toni just fired off a backhanded salute and move to the bow lines. The engine came to life and once they were clear of the moorings, they moved out of the harbor and out into Lake Michigan. It was indeed a perfect day.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

The apartment fire had gone really well. The guy whose apartment it was, was still drunk from the night before so getting in had been simple for two fairly attractive girls. They had claimed to be looking for a friend of theirs, and poof they were in. While Ruth had flirted with the idiot, Teressa searched the place and found the silverware stuffed in the microwave. Guessing that had been the source she had cleared the appliance out and then checked the paper. The story was gone, then it had just been a matter of getting herself and Camden out of there. They were able to manage it, but not before Ruthie was forced to agree to take the guys number. This had given them plenty of time to get to the pedestrian.

This had turned out to be a jogger that twisted his knee and fell into traffic. The girls caught him before he hit the pavement, but not before he twisted the knee. Supporting him between the two of them, they were able to get him to the hospital, just four blocks away. In those four blocks it became painfully apparent that he thought Teressa was just the living end. After they had dropped him off in the ER, the girl found his business card in the back pocket of her jeans. Not even wanting to think about how it got there, she threw the card away and the two of them headed for some lunch. The mugging wasn't until three thirty in Douglas Park.

The two friends were still laughing about the 'hotties' that had tried to pick them up, when the saw the mugging victim, or at least someone that looked just like her picture. She was walking one of those little mop dogs and enjoying the spring day. Ruthie spotted the guy 'crap, he's huge' she thought to herself, and immediately called 911. Teressa went down to try and distract the woman long enough for the police to get there, and to help protect her if the police were late. As soon as she finished the call, Ruthie went down to help her friend, and she saw that the police would probably be late. Teressa was playing with the woman's dog when the guy broke cover and started right for them. His eyes widened a bit when Ruthie joined them, but he kept on coming. "I've already called the police" she informed the man "so if you have any brains whatsoever, you'll leave now."

The man hesitated, you could see him think it over, but in the end, he kept on coming.

"Run" Teressa yelled at the woman "get the heck out of here."

"What about him" she asked.

"We'll deal with him, you just run" Ruthie told her. The woman picked up her dog and sprinted off, leaving the mugger just two victims instead of three. This didn't make him happy. He kept coming and the girls started backing up, it wasn't fear so much as it was good strategy. Hold the guy off until the cops got there, and don't get physical unless there was no other option. Unfortunately the guy realized what was going on and charged, taking away every other option. The goon was going for Teressa, so she threw herself to one side and swept the guys legs, while Ruthie shot a kick into his gut; knocking the air out of him with a loud rush as he went down. Immediately Teressa was on his back with all her weight and trying to pound his head into the path. Unfortunately she wasn't nearly heavy enough to hold him down, or strong enough to put his lights out. He reared back, straightening himself up and throwing her off his back and onto the ground. But before he could take advantage of this, Ruthie's right heel crashed into his jaw and he went down for the count.

"You OK Walters" Ruthie asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine Camden, just bruised my butt and my ego, but I'm OK."

"Let's just hope the cops get here before he tries to wake up" Ruthie said and she helped her friend to her feet.

Fortunately the police did get there before the mugger regained consciousness, so after taking the two girls' statements they headed off and the girls headed for McGinty's. "Check the paper one last time Camden, make sure nothing else popped up."

Ruthie took her friends advice and did check the paper, but it was clear and the rest of the day was theirs.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"So you're telling me that RC gave up her studio days for a month so you could learn to sail without me finding out?"

"Yep"

"Remind me to thank her when we see her again, OK Hobson."

"I've thanked her a time or two myself Toni, but I'll give you a chance."

The pair of them walked into McGinty's after a day on Lake Michigan. Toni had never been sailing before, and she had loved it, the sun and the wind were like nothing she had ever experienced before, and the story about how Gary had ended up with the boat in the first place was first rate. When they walked in, the first thing they noticed was the somber mood, for some reason everyone seemed down, then they noticed that Meredith was there talking to Marissa, and from their expressions it wasn't good news.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

After the mugging, the two friends had just wandered around Chicago a bit, enjoying the day. When they got to McGinty's though, all the joy seemed to be snuffed right out. Gary was at the bar along with Toni, Marissa and Meredith; Ruthie remembered a conversation where they had referred to themselves as 'Hobson's Angels', she smiled at the memory, but she was the only one smiling. "So, how was sailing" she asked.

"Great RC, but we need to talk" Gary said, his expression getting even more somber.

"Sure, where" Ruthie asked.

"Let's go upstairs."

"I'm not gonna like this am I" Ruthie asked.

"No Ruth, you're not" Marissa answered.

They got to the loft and Meredith told her tale about the assignment and the letters and the fact that she had forgotten that it wasn't just Gary dealing with the paper.

"So you're saying that this girl is on to me" Ruthie asked.

"Yep" Meredith answered.

"And there's nothing you can do to stop her?"

"Officially, nothing and even unofficially there's not much."

"So the only option we've got is for me to never help with the paper again, is that what you're saying?"

"Yes Ruth" Toni said "that's it exactly. We can't risk the general public finding out about the paper, and we can't stop this girl from looking. Fortunately she just thinks you're psychic, she doesn't suspect Gary of anything and she has no idea about the paper. But in order for that to remain the case, you've got to stop helping or she will find those things out."

"I was afraid of that" Ruthie said as her world came crashing down around her.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Janet was at a bar near the _Sun-Times_ thinking about what had been said that day. Carson had made it pretty clear that no matter how well researched the story was that it would never get her blessing. And without that, none of the higher ups would take it seriously. Maybe if she went to a different editor. Meredith had said that Steve liked her work, if she took her idea to him, maybe he would push it through. But Carson was right about one thing, she needed ironclad confirmation for anything to be taken seriously, and so she was back to her earlier dilemma. On one hand she had her ethical standards, and on the other, the kind of story that came along once in a lifetime. She believed in it and had already put so much into it, could she really drop it. No, no she couldn't do that, not now, not ever. To hell with Carson holding her back, she would get the confirmation however she could and then shove the story approval right in that snooty wenches face. Janet polished off her Whisky Sour and wandered off into the night, wishing life were a lot simpler than it was.


	24. Life is What Happens

THE LEGACY – CHAPTER 23

One week; that's how long it had been, one stinking week and Ruthie was going nuts. She had tried burying herself in work, helping anyone who needed it at school, down at McGinty's helping Brent or Crumb or even Abby. She had even tried to do a special painting, this one with the theme of "Melancholy", because that was what she was feeling. A very ephemeral emotion to be sure and she didn't think she had caught it quite right, but it wasn't a bad effort. Heck, Simon and Lily had returned from their honeymoon and all their stories hadn't helped, even the ones she promised not to tell her parents. She felt like she was being consumed by the paper, or more exactly, by its absence. She could now identify very well with addicts that had gone 'cold turkey'. To have something always in the back of your mind, to be constantly avoiding, and yet constantly involved in a subject, it was driving her to distraction. Unfortunately it was also necessary. Ruth remembered that Meredith had dished up a few home truths when they had discussed Aguilera's story about her.

"I can't help out at all?"

"No, because right now she has no idea that something like the paper exists, she just thinks you're a psychic. Guarding the paper's existence is priority one. She also has no idea that Gary is directing you, she hasn't twigged to him and she can't. So protecting Gary's anonymity is our second priority. If you are linked in any way to these things, she'll be on it like white on rice, so you've got to stay out of it entirely."

"Forever" the girl asked, dread in her voice.

"Look" said Meredith "right now the story is contained, you give her more data and it's out there and then God help us all. Lay low, don't give her any more ammunition and I'll see what I can do from my end. It won't be fast, but I should be able to wean her off of it in under a month. But for that to work you've got to stay out of it, entirely; understand."

Ruthie nodded miserably, she understood alright; she understood that one of the best things she was doing or had done with her life was now off limits; and that was like a knife in the gut.

So she had thrown herself into her other activities to try and find something, anything to fill the hole that was inside her. Like now, she was apartment hunting with Teressa. She wouldn't be able to stay in the dorms obviously, and if she was going to be a professor, she would need somewhere in Chicago to live. Unfortunately they couldn't use the advantage of tomorrow's listings, just in case, so they had to hunt the old fashioned way. What they had discovered was that a lot of people were very creative when it came to describing their properties. 'Handyman's Dream' usually meant that the building was within an ace of being condemned. 'Pets Encouraged' meant that you needed about twenty cats to keep the rat population down, or that you needed a guard dog to keep the thieves at bay. 'Economy' meant tiny, and 'Near to Transportation' meant that an El line was five feet from your window.

"Hey Camden, what about this one?"

"That's a condo, not an apartment."

"What's the difference?"

"You buy a condo, and you rent an apartment."

"Get a load of the location."

"Ruthie's eyes went wide; you've got to be kidding me."

"Why not, it'd be perfect."

"True and it can't hurt to look."

They ended up at a building on the corner of Illinois and Franklin, right across the street from McGinty's. It was in fact two doors down from Mr. Paige's place; and it was perfect. "Now all I have to do is figure out how to pay for the thing" Ruthie told her friend.

"Why don't you ask Marissa for some ideas, she's been running a business, she probably knows a thing or two about finance, heck ask your brother for that matter, he could probably tell you how to get an interest free loan."

"Both good ideas Walters, lets head on over to McGinty's and I can call Simon from there."

The two friends headed across to McGinty's, they walked in and went up to the bar where Crumb was keeping it under control. "Hey Ruth" he said "how you doing kiddo?"

"Not bad Crumb, how about yourself?"

"Doing some work for Toni on the side and seeing Darlene, you know me."

"Been fishing lately?"

"In two weeks, me and a buddy from Cicero are headed up to northern Minnesota, go for some pike, musky, that kind of thing."

"Sounds great, is Marissa in back?"

"Yeah, just her though, Hobson and Toni are off somewhere and Abby's already gone home for the day."

"I need to make a call or two, but you want some help when I'm done?"

"Who am I to turn down a pretty lady, sure Ruth, I'm always glad to have help; well as long as it isn't Fishman."

Ruthie laughed as she headed back to the office. Marissa was there, running her fingers over the painting that Ruth had given her. Ruthie couldn't believe that it had been over six months ago that she had done that.

"Hello Ruth, I was just thinking about you."

"Hi Marissa, good thoughts I hope."

"Of course, I was wondering if you could do one of these for a friend of mine."

"Sure, I'd be honored to. How soon do you want it?"

"Is Monday possible?"

"Sure, very doable unless something comes up. I was wondering if I could use the phone, if that's alright."

"Of course you can, who are you calling?"

"My brother, I need some advice from the bank of Simon."

"The Bank of Simon?"

"That's what we all called him when we were younger, even when he was in middle school he had a way with business."

"So why do you need advice, if you don't mind me asking."

"No problem, I've found a great place, it's just that it's a condo and not an apartment, so I've got to buy the thing if I want it, not rent. So I need to find out whether or not it's workable from Simon, and see what options I have."

"Where is this place?"

"Across the street, in the same building as Mr. Paige."

"Good location."

"I thought so, even if I'm not helping with the paper anymore."

"You might not be helping directly; but you'll have a full life, with teaching and everything else."

"Yeah, but it won't be the same, I miss it so much already. It'll be tough to be around it and not able to actively help, but I'll do anything to help and support Gary and everyone, even if it means laying off it."

"Well, you make your call, and I'll go make sure the bar hasn't run off. Say 'Hi' to you brother and Lily for me."

"I will, thanks Marissa."

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

It was Saturday and Ruthie was in her studio working on the painting that Marissa had requested. She was in a great mood, her talk with Simon had been informative and she had a chance to talk to Lily again which was also good. Simon had come up with a workable way to make the payments if Ruthie decided to buy the place. He had mentioned the fact that she could sell a painting, but Ruthie had just answered that with a glare and he had shut up. Lily was doing well, and had already had a couple of tentative offers from some firms in town. Bela Fleck was playing on her stereo as she worked; this painting was going to be a bit different in that the shapes were not just spheres, but cubes and cones as well. Like before, the background was black with white dots like stars scattered on it. She was going to use the stars to name the painting again, but since she didn't know specifically who it was for, she couldn't personalize it like she had Marissa's. She was about three quarters of the way through when she felt someone at the door. She spared a glance over her shoulder and was surprised to see the reporter standing there watching her.

"Something I can help you with" Ruthie asked.

"Can I talk to you for a bit" the reporter replied.

"Sure, if you don't mind me working while we talk, I'm kind on a deadline with this one."

"Yeah, I know how that can be" Janet replied. "If you don't mind me saying so, that looks a bit simpler than most of your stuff" she indicated all of the finished paintings in the studio as she said this.

"It is" Ruthie replied "but it's for a blind person."

"How can a blind person enjoy a painting" Janet asked, intrigued despite herself.

"Come up close and I'll show you. See" she said as the reporter approached "each color has its own texture. And that texture is most pronounced where the color is the brightest, as the texture fades, the color fades. This wouldn't work for someone who was born blind, but for someone who's lost their sight, it works pretty well."

"That's pretty clever" Janet said "I never would have thought of that."

Ruthie gave a grin at the praise, she realized that the girl was an adversary, but that didn't change the way she felt when someone complimented her work. "So what is it you want, again?"

"I'm doing some work in features and came across an interesting story; I wanted a comment from you if that's alright."

"Sure, what kind of story do you need a comment from me on?"

"It's a human interest thing we've been doing; it's on common people that help out in uncommon ways."

"Yeah, I've read a couple of those, nice work."

"Thanks" Janet said blushing; the girl liking her work gave her a momentary pang of conscience, but not enough to override her need to get the story "I was just wondering how long you've been a psychic?"

Ruthie just stared at the girl with an incredulous look on her face "did you just ask me how long I've been a psychic?"

"Yeah, just a rough estimate is OK."

"I'm not, nor ever have been a psychic."

"What do you call it then, gifted, clairvoyant, what?"

"Sorry, still not figuring out what the heck you're talking about. How in the world do you peg me for being a psychic or any of those other words you used?"

"Well that's kind of interesting, you see, when I went through the letters that were sent in, I noticed that someone with your name and matching your description had been helping people all over the city for the past few months. That you just happened to be there and decided to help strains belief, so either you are psychic or you're causing the situations and then helping out for the attention. Since you've never contacted any media outlet, I figured it had to be the first."

Ruthie gaped at the girl for a moment or two, and then burst into raucous laughter. Janet stood there a little irritated; this wasn't going according to plan. The Camden girl was supposed to beg her not to expose her and then they'd come to some agreement, not laugh in her face.

Ruthie got herself under a semblance of control "take a look in the top drawer of that filing cabinet over there" she said.

Janet walked over and opened the drawer "what am I looking for" she asked.

"There's some sketch books in there, you're looking for the one that says 'AIC' on the back".

"OK, I've got it, now what?"

"What does it say on the front?"

"Architecture in Chicago, huh, so this is your explanation?"

"Yep, I go around the city on Friday's and sketch different unique or interesting architectural landmarks. That's why I'm all over the city, and if I see something going on, I just get involved, that's how I was raised."

Janet thought for a moment or two, it did indeed explain everything; especially how all of these incidents that people wrote about occurred on a Friday. But her instincts were telling her a different story all together. "You're lying" she said.

"I beg your pardon" Ruthie almost screamed out "did you just tell me I was lying?"

"Yep, cause you are."

"And what brings you to this conclusion, aside from the fact that it's the one you want it to be?"

"Most stories, explanations, whatever, have more holes than a plate of Swiss cheese; when they start looking like suits of armor, that tells me that someone is lying. And right now that someone is you."

Ruthie put down her brush and palette and walked right up to the reporter, anger radiating off of her "you can leave now" she said.

"Fine" Janet said, then played her trump card "this story is going to get out, one way or another. It can go out with your side, or with me making up your side. I'll give you a second or two to decide, but once I'm out of here, you lose any chance of controlling the story."

Ruthie just glared at the girl "I can't comment on something that isn't true, I'm not a psychic, end of story."

"Your call" Janet said, and headed for the door.

"By the way, you're welcome".

"Excuse me"

"You know, the part where you thank me for saving your life; you're welcome. I guess it's true what they say" Ruthie spat out bitterly.

"What's that" Janet asked, her words catching in her throat.

"No good deed goes unpunished" Ruthie replied, and turned back to her painting, good mood well and truly gone.

Janet stood there, staring at the other girls back; a single tear escaped, but that was all, then she turned and walked away.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Gary hung up the phone, his face ashen. "What's the matter hon" Toni asked.

"It's RC" he replied "the reporter girl confronted her earlier today and told her that if she didn't own up, then they'd go ahead and publish the story without her comments."

"Can they do that?"

"Sure, just like Scanlon did."

"So what's the worst case here?"

"They crawl up her life with a microscope, and eventually she cracks under the scrutiny and gives up me and the paper."

"Do you think that'll happen?"

"Not really, but we gotta make sure it doesn't get close to that."

"Any ideas?"

"A couple, but we need Marissa and Meredith in on this, because even the best case is pretty bad."

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Meredith Carson slammed the phone down on her desk at home. Gary had just called her and told her about the situation with his young protégé. Damn that Aguilera anyway, what the hell did she think she was doing going over her editor's head that way, that was a firing offense. Then Meredith smiled, although it contained no mirth, if the girl was fired, then the story died, at least in the legitimate media. Meredith started putting some notes together, reminders of ways to minimize the damage that had already been done and that which was likely to come.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Janet sat in her favorite bar, feeling horrible. The girl's parting words had brought her guilt roaring to the forefront. The Camden kid was correct, Janet should have been down on her knees thanking her for what she had done, instead she had threatened to basically wreck the girl's life if she didn't cooperate. She stirred her drink, but the answers weren't there. She tossed it off and got up with a sigh 'I'll talk to Steve on Monday' she thought, maybe she would know what to do by then.


	25. Highs, Lows and Everything Else

A/N Sorry this chapter took so long, but I wanted to get it right. This whole story had turned out a bit more angsty than I had originally intended, ahh well. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has been following this story. I appreciate the feedback that you have given me, as well as the encouragement. I can only hope that I will continue to write things that make you smile, or make you think, or even make you cry; because that means I'm doing it right.

POE1911

THE LEGACY – CHAPTER 24

After class on Monday, Ruthie and Teressa went to see the realtor about the condo across from McGinty's. The meeting probably would have gone smoother and faster if Ruthie hadn't had ten pages worth of notes that Simon had given her about what to avoid and where to push. In the end she had put in an offer significantly lower than the asking price, but an offer that Simon was convinced the seller would go for. If it had been up to Ruthie she just would have paid the asking price and not bothered with offers and counter-offers at all. 'I guess that's why Simon's in business and I'm not' Ruthie thought. Anyway, she made the offer at one in the afternoon and then the two of them had headed over to McGinty's. The first thing that Ruthie had done was drop the painting that she had done off with Marissa. After letting the blind woman see the painting, she had headed out into the bar to see if anyone needed any help. Ruthie was behind the bar helping Brent, when a very good looking guy stepped up to the bar, "Ruth Camden" he asked.

"In the flesh, what can I do for you?"

"I need some work done, do you have the time?"

Ruthie smiled to herself; one of the benefits of having her work in the _Sun-Times_ was that it brought her name to the attention of a lot of people. This in turn brought people wanting sketch work done to McGinty's looking for her. She charged fifty bucks an image, but the customer always left with the work the same day, so Ruthie didn't feel too bad about the amount she charged. "Sure, what do you need?"

"It's my grandparents' 50th anniversary soon, I was hoping you could do a then and now piece for them.

"Sounds doable; you do realize that for two images in one sketch, that's a hundred dollars?"

"I had heard that."

"Cool, you got the pictures with you, ore am I gonna have to work from your descriptions?"

"No, I've got the pictures right here."

"Alright then, head on over to that booth" Ruthie indicated her favorite spot to work "and I'll be there in a second."

The guy headed over to the booth while Ruthie went to get her materials. She picked up her sketch book and pencils and paused a second. Something wasn't right; she wasn't sure what it was, but something was off kilter with the whole situation. As she thought she realized that the best she could do would be to play along and wait for whatever wasn't right to become evident, and just remain on guard until then. She paused at the bar to pick up an Oberon Ale and headed over to her work both and the cute guy that was there. She sat down and arranged her stuff, took a sip of the beer and then said "alright, let's have the pictures."

The guy handed over the pictures with a grin. One was a very young couple, he was in an army uniform and she was wearing a flower patterned dress. The other showed a much older, but still handsome couple.

"OK, do you want one to blend into the other; have two separate pictures or the two different frames on one background?"

"The last I think, both pictures on the same sheet."

"Easy enough then" Ruthie said as she started. She began chatting with the guy, asking about the couple, trying to figure out who they were. In addition she asked his opinions of them, what he liked about them and what he didn't, things that they had done together, that kind of information. In order to do her best, she had to understand what kind of people the subjects were, because without that knowledge she was just putting charcoal onto paper. Every once in a while, the guy, whose name was Michael, asked her a question as well; what she did, what she liked, slightly personal questions, but not that intrusive.

During a lull in the conversation, Ruthie looked up to see Michael looking a bit nervous, she went back to her sketch and waited for him to get out whatever was on his mind.

After a minute or two of silence, he leaned forward "I imagine you meet a lot of people while working here."

"Sure" she replied, keeping it simple.

"Do you think you could help me find someone?"

"You mean like a potential wife, or something like that?"

"No" he said blushing "I mean like a friend that kind of dropped off the map, I'm not really worried, but I'd feel better just knowing where they were."

"I could possibly help, but you'd have better luck asking Crumb" she pointed to the older man that was now behind the bar. "He's a PI and former cop, so he knows everyone and he knows how to investigate."

"I'm sure he's good" Michael said, turning back to her "but I would want someone a bit more" he hesitated "talented. Like the person that helped my aunt Deb find my cousin when she was lost." He went on to describe a situation that Ruthie was very familiar with.

As he was doing that, she realized that all of this was a set up. He was trying to get her to admit her psychic status, which she would do if she agreed to help this guy. When he finished, she looked up from the sketch "that was mostly luck. I was in the area sketching some Greek revival stuff from the 1800's when your aunt started yelling about her kid. I remembered seeing a kid heading past the stuff I had been sketching, so I went in the same direction and found your cousin crying in an alley. Simple as that, I imagine anyone would have done the same thing."

"I doubt that" he replied "so you just knew where she was?"

"Nope, I remembered the direction she had been going in and went that way, like I said the rest was just luck."

He leaned back with a bit of a skeptical look "Whatever you say, but thanks for helping out."

"Hey, no big deal, like I said I'd bet anyone would have done the same thing."

"Maybe; but they didn't, you did."

"True, so you're welcome; and your sketch is done."

She handed over the paper to Michael and he looked at it with a mixture of admiration and disbelief on his face. "This is fantastic" he finally managed "I can't believe you finished it that quickly."

She blushed a little at the praise then replied "hey, it's what I do. So you gonna go talk to Crumb, I could introduce you?"

"I'm not sure" he replied "but I'll give it some thought." He got up and paid her, and headed out into the late afternoon.

"You gotta do better than that, Aguilera" Ruthie muttered as she put her materials away. She was sure that Michael had been planted on her by the reporter. This told her that for whatever reason, Aguilera couldn't publish her story. Ruthie smiled as she headed back to put her things away, which meant that the story would probably die a quiet death very soon, and then she could get back to her important work. Ruthie put her materials in her personal drawer and stretched, and then she headed behind the bar to see if Crumb needed a hand.

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"Sorry Ags" Michael said "she wasn't buying." The intern handed her the sketch she had paid for and the tape of the conversation and started to walk off.

"Thanks for trying Mike" Janet said "I appreciate the effort."

"No problem J, but why don't you talk to Steve, he's a smart guy and he can help."

"Thanks Mike, I was planning on it" Janet said, grateful for the concern in the guy's eyes. She got up and approached the editor's office, not sure if she should really be doing this or not. Scratch that, she knew she shouldn't be doing this but she couldn't abandon her story, not if there was a way to save it.

She knocked and when he looked up she said "can I talk to you"?

He waved her in and she closed the door. "I've got this story I've come across and I don't know what to do with it" she said.

"Why not" Steve asked "is it a good story?"

"God yes, it's one of those once in a lifetime stories; however, there are some technical problems with it."

"What are they?"

"Well, I don't have complete confirmation, and it's about a girl who I believe to be a genuine psychic."

Steve looked at her for a second "did you say psychic"?

"Yeah, and I know it sounds like something a tabloid would love, but let me show you what I've got." Janet proceeded to show Steve the article as well as all of the collaborative material, the letters and the interviews with the people that had been saved. "But you know how it is" she said finally "something like this is impossible to do without direct confirmation, and she won't give it. In fact she maintains that she isn't a psychic."

"Did she kind of ease around it or did she say it directly?"

"Directly, no doubt about that and she has a plausible excuse for being where she was and when she was."

"So drop it, sounds like she's telling the truth."

"I can't, cause she isn't. I can't prove it directly, but I know it, she's lying and the excuse is just that, a cover story. I don't know how I know this, but I'm as sure of it as anything. So what should I do?"

"Did you ever think of filing it, just do it in the 'pending' section; then you've got five years to collect more data and make the coincidences overwhelming."

Janet thought for a moment, it was her story, she had sweated blood over it, and put everything she had into it, did she want to give up control of it now. But if she did, it would always have her name on the by-line, even if she wasn't here to finish it up. "Sure, can I transfer the file to you, and have you make sure it gets where it needs to be?"

"Sure kid, and hey, I hope it works out for you."

"Thanks Steve, I hope it does too."

She went back to her desk and collected all of her work into one file and transferred it to the Features Editor. She knew that Steve was a stand up guy and would take care of everything for her. Just as she was finishing, a message that Meredith wanted to see her popped up on her terminal. Janet sighed, because she knew this couldn't be good, and turned off her computer and headed up to the Investigative department.

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Meredith had been putting this talk off for a while, hoping she would calm down a bit, unfortunately it had just given her more time to stew and therefore she was just that much more angry. Her fuming was interrupted by a knock on her door; unfortunately the person knocking was the subject of her anger. Taking a couple of deep breaths, she motioned for the girl to come in.

"You wanted to see me" Janet asked.

"Yes, by the end of the day I expect to have a very contrite letter of resignation on my desk, with your name on the top."

"I'm not quitting."

"Janet, either you quit, or I fire you. If I fire you then your job prospects are limited at best; resign and I'll give you a recommendation. That's it, take it or leave it."

"Why, what specifically did I do?"

"You really don't know, do you?"

"If I knew I wouldn't ask, so what was it?"

"You recently tried to extort a confirmation from a Ruth Camden, a girl who was the subject of a story that we had talked about. After that, you tried to trick her into providing confirmation. Do you have the slightest comprehension of who it is you went after?"

"She's a twenty three year old art student from California, not exactly the Mayor or someone important like that."

Meredith just shook her head "you moron, just because it's not a name you recognize doesn't mean it isn't someone who's connected. Is the light starting to dawn now" Meredith asked in a nasty tone of voice. "Allow me to enlighten you, Ruth Camden is one of the finest young artists in the world, a conservative estimate put her work at five hundred grand a painting. That doesn't even touch the fact that the art school wants to hire her after graduation, to be a professor there. Now how do you think they'll react when the new professor tells all her colleagues how she was treated by a reporter from the _Sun-Times_, do you think they'll co-operate with any of us; not likely."

"So we lose out on stories having to do with art, not a major problem in my book."

"Well if that were all it was, I'd agree, but there's more. She works at a bar called McGinty's. A bar owned by a former city commissioner by the name of Gary Hobson, he wasn't in office long, but he earned a reputation in the short time he was there. I don't have to tell you what politics in this city are like, do I. Hobson is married to a police detective named Toni Brigatti. Now both of these people think of Ruth Camden as a daughter, imagine how they'll react to her story. Then imagine how our reporters will be treated by them because of their hatred for you. I don't even want to speculate on what kind of influence Hobson would bring to bear, but losing connections with the homicide cops would be nearly fatal for the paper. Camden's brother is an up and coming guy in business around here, and do you think he'd be silent about how the _Sun-Times_ roughed up his baby sister; not to mention the guy's wife is a new lawyer, and probably dying to make a quick reputation by burning some un-ethical reporter. Oh, and I almost forgot the bar-tender at McGinty's. He's an ex cop, now PI named Crumb, and if Camden wanted to get you back, he'd do it for free; so you best pray that you don't have any skeletons in your closet, cause he'd dig em up, and the Trib would print em just to burn us. So what it comes down to kid is that you are just too much of a liability for us to keep around. So you can quit, or I fire you right now, what's it gonna be?"

Janet was defeated and knew it; she had no choice what so ever. "You'll have it by the end of the day" she said, and got up.

"Where is this story by the way" Meredith asked.

"I gave it to Steve, and he filed it in the 'pending' section."

Meredith turned ashen for a second, and then regaining her composure said "whatever, now get out of my sight."

There were so many things that Janet wanted to say, apologies for what had happened, thanks for what she had learned, railings against the unfairness of it all; but in the end she said nothing. She just closed the door and walked away.

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Meredith Carson had been through a lot in her life. Some of it was great and some of it was awful, but mostly it had been good. What she had to do now definitely fit into the 'not good' category. She was trying to find the right words and failing when she realized she was already standing outside McGinty's. Steeling herself, she walked in, and almost turned and walked right back out; because the first thing she saw was Ruth Camden dancing around with a huge smile on her face. What had been 'not good' slipped into the realm of 'awful'. Slowly she walked up to the bar "what's with the celebration RC"?

"They accepted my offer, I've got a place to live now."

"That's great, where's it at?"

"Right across the street, in the same building as Mr. Paige."

"Sounds like a winner" Meredith leaned over the bar "could I talk to you alone?"

Ruthie really looked at Meredith now, her face seemed haggard and worn; like she had aged ten years in the last couple of days. "Sure Meredith, how private do you need?"

"As private as we can get."

"How about the guest room; that's about as private as you can get."

"Sounds good" the older woman said with a sigh, then followed Ruthie up to the guest loft.

Ruthie turned and looked at Meredith "so now that we're alone, what's so important?"

"I've got a question first, how far would you go to protect Gary and the paper?"

"As far as I had to" the girl answered immediately and with complete sincerity.

"Even if it hurt you?"

"Even if it hurt me" she replied "what he does is too important."

"OK then, Janet got let go today."

Ruthie brightened "that's a good thing, right?" Then as she watched Meredith's face, her look fell.

"No, it's not a good thing. She was a good kid that made a couple of bad decisions; she doesn't deserve what had to happen."

"Maybe not, but you weren't the one she was threatening. It's tough for me to be objective."

"Understandable, anyway after I told her the situation I asked for all her work, including the story of course."

"And" Ruthie said; she could feel the dread welling up inside her.

"And she had already filed the story with the features department as a pending story."

"What does that mean" Ruthie asked, feeling as though she was standing on a cliff in a high wind.

"That means that if you are associated with anything in the next five years, that the story will be called up and could be referenced."

"So if I help someone in the next five years that could be used as confirmation of the earlier story and then the original could be published if the editors feel that it should be?"

"Exactly, it would mean that even if you just happen to find yourself in a situation like the bank robbery, you would have to stay uninvolved, no matter what. Do you think you could do that?"

Ruthie thought for a moment, really thought about it; "no, I'd have to do something" she said finally.

Meredith's face fell even more; the answer was unfortunate, but not unexpected. "I was afraid you'd say that, but you realize how much damage that could do."

"Yeah, but there's no way I could just stand and watch."

"I know, it's the kind of person you are, and that's not bad; but given the circumstances it's very inconvenient."

Ruthie looked at Meredith for a moment, her mind working a mile a minute; then she came to a realization. "You're telling me I have to leave Chicago, aren't you?"

"Yeah I am Ruth, it's unfair and I know it's devastating to you, but it has to be done."

"Devastating" Ruthie said, her voice almost coming out as a scream "you're telling me I've got to leave my friends, people that have become as close to me as my family, a perfect job, and a place that I love" her voice kept rising in passion and volume "I'd say that devastating is one hell of an understatement. I'll have to lie to my family, and to people who trust me, I'll have to leave people who are depending on me high and dry; I'll have to go back to California and scrape for work again while living in my parents garage; and everything in my life except my family will be ripped from me. Sorry Meredith, you'll have to do a lot better than devastating to describe that." Tears were pouring unnoticed down the young woman's face. "I've found something that gives my life meaning and people that I want to have in my life and now you're telling me that all those things that I love; I'm going to have to walk away from them all." Ruthie looked utterly defeated "that's too much for one person."

Meredith felt crushed under the weight of the girl's grief, and she felt a huge amount of guilt at the part she played in it, but she pressed on "you can't stay kid, you know that."

"Yeah" Ruthie said, almost too quietly to hear "I know that, but I hate it and I hate the circumstances that make it necessary."

"Do you hate her" Meredith asked, she was after all a reporter, and was naturally a very curious person.

"No, I don't hate her, but I'm not gonna run for president of her fan club either" Ruthie said with a watery smile.

"Good, because she's not worth destroying the good person you are" Meredith said with a sigh of relief.

Ruthie stood in the middle of the floor, thinking for a moment, finally she looked up "could you ask Teressa to come up here before you go and tell Gary?"

"Sure" Meredith said to the girl, giving her an encouraging smile "you want anything else sent up?"

"No thanks, just my best friend will do" Ruthie said, the tears still running down her cheeks.

Meredith paused at the door "for what it's worth, I'm sorry it came to this."

"Thanks, but it's no ones fault, not really; just the whims of venomous fate."

Meredith left, and as the door closed, Ruthie collapsed back onto the bed, the tears pouring again. She curled up on the quilt, she wasn't sure how she'd survive this, she really wasn't.

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Janet had written her letter of resignation, and left it on Carson's desk. She looked around the office where she had worked, not really accepting the fact that she'd never be here again. Then something occurred to her, one last thing she needed to do. She sat down at her terminal and searched out everything that there was on Ruth Camden. The reporter sat there and read every article, and it began to dawn on her what exactly had occurred. 'I've killed her' Janet thought; not literally but in every other way that matters, I've killed her. A good person's life was shattered beyond redemption because Janet had let her ambition over-ride her sense of right. She sat back and turned off her terminal for the last time. She wrote out a short note, and left it on Carson's desk, on top of her letter, then without a backwards look, she left the _Sun-Times_ for good.

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Meredith got back to her office emotionally drained. She had never seen Gary as angry as he had been, and Gary hadn't come close to how Toni had reacted. Even Marissa, who was the embodiment of emotional equilibrium, looked ready to put her hand through a wall. Teressa was just too worried about her friend to be angry just yet, but Meredith was sure it would come. Ruth looked catatonic, as though she was completely without emotion. Actually her reaction scared Meredith the most. She had to consider the real possibility that the young woman would just shut down, and the artist that she was would cease to exist. Meredith just hoped Aguilera was smart enough to head out of town tonight, and send for her stuff later. She walked in and immediately saw the Aguilera's letter, and the note. Meredith picked it up, read it and smiled in relief. "Tell her I'll find her and apologize one day, once I'm able to forgive myself" was all the note said, but it was a start.


	26. Goodbye to You

* * *

THE LEGACY – CHAPTER 25 

This is the end

Beautiful friend

This is the end

My only friend, the end

Of our elaborate plans, the end

Of everything that stands, the end

No safety or surprise, the end

I'll never look into your eyes; again

THE DOORS

Ruthie didn't remember much about the next couple of days, she survived them, but that was about it. And although she could remember few specifics, she had at least felt cared for, thanks to Marissa and Teressa. On Sunday morning, she woke up with the sun shining in the window, she was sleeping in Marissa's guest room, but she wasn't alone. She turned her head slightly and looked at the blond head next to hers "so how are you this morning" she asked.

The only reply she got was an enthusiastic thumping, as Riley's tail whacked the bed, the dog being ecstatic at the fact that his presence had been acknowledged (a common reaction in Golden Retrievers and single men). Ruthie sat up, feeling really awake for the first time since her conversation with Meredith. Some delicious smells were coming from the kitchen, and her stomach was reminding her that she hadn't eaten much of anything the last couple of days. Stretching out all the kinks, Ruthie got out of bed and went in search of breakfast; once more a functioning member of the human race.

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"Marissa, what are we gonna do if Camden keeps up like this?"

"I don't know Teressa, if she's like this for more than a week we ought to get her to a professional; personally I'm going to pray she comes out of it and we don't have to worry about it."

"So what are you singing today?"

"Rock of Ages, the new choir director really likes the classics."

"So is Leon picking you up, or are you meeting him there?"

Marissa got a bit flustered at the mention of her current beau, something Teressa thought was adorable. "Actually, he's coming by for breakfast."

"You're cooking for him, you've got it bad."

"I'm simply being hospitable young lady, keep up that attitude and you'll be washing dishes for a month." Both Marissa and her adopted daughter laughed at this since Teressa did the dishes every day anyway.

"Now that smells good" said a voice from the kitchen door.

Teressa turned to see her friend looking like she was on the way back to normal. She bolted up and gave Ruthie a fierce hug. Marissa just settled for beaming her great smile at Ruthie. "Good to have you back Camden" Teressa said. She had been deeply worried about her friend, and seeing her like this was a huge relief.

"Thanks Walters, its good to be back" Ruthie replied. "And I wanted to thank the both of you for helping me out the last couple of days. I know it couldn't have been easy, but one of the few things I do remember is that neither of you would leave my side. I can't tell you how much it helped having that physical assurance that someone cared; it meant everything to me. So thank you, both of you, for that. And now that I've said my little piece, what's on the menu?"

"Omelets and boyfriend inspection" Teressa answered.

"Leon's coming here, for breakfast" Ruthie said "boy do you have it bad Marissa."

Breakfast went well, and Leon was a great guy. The four of them went to church together, which was a bit surprising. Ruthie hadn't been that actively religious during her time in Chicago, but the girl needed to feel normal, and there was nothing so normal as church on Sunday for a Camden. Ruthie kind of tuned out the minister, but she loved the choir, and wished they would sing more often. After church, Leon and Marissa went out for Lunch with several other choir members while Teressa and Ruthie headed back to Marissa's apartment, popped some popcorn and indulged in a 'mindless teen comedy' video fest. Ruthie's eyes were on the screen, but her mind was a million miles away. She had an epiphany during the worship service. She knew what she needed to do to recover herself. Before she called anyone else, before she cried on anymore shoulders, before she started severing connections, she had one more painting to do, and on Monday, that's exactly what she would do. She was planning it in her head as the videos flickered by in front of her eyes, one more painting to sum it all up.

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Despite her very eclectic music collection, there was one type of music that had never done much for Ruthie and that was classical. Sure, she appreciated the intricacies and admired the expertise it took, but classical as a genre never did much for her, with one exception. When she was in her freshman year, her class had gone to the planetarium across from the natural history museum. There they had seen a presentation and the background music had been 'The Planets' by Holst. Ruthie was captivated by the range of emotions captured in that one piece, and how each was separated and delineated yet at the same time was part of a greater whole. She loved it; and it was currently the only piece of classical music she owned. And it would be what she listened to for her last painting as a student. In all of her previous work, her serious work; she had isolated and refined the single emotion she was trying to embed in her work. Now she was going to try and capture them all, undiluted and yet all part of a blended whole. She was going to paint the person she was, her joys and sorrows, highs and lows and everything else that made her Ruth Camden. It would be her 'Magnum Opus' as a student; her rite of passage into the real world. Leaving the door open for a change, and putting the CD in, she faced the largest canvas that she had ever attempted, and went to work.

Ruthie didn't mark the passage of time, she didn't know or care what day or time of day it was, she just worked, striving to get this right. She never made a sound, she simply worked, her technique had never been cleaner, her movements more assured. She didn't care that she had an almost constant audience of her fellow students. She didn't care that one of the first year painting classes had come up en-mass to watch her, every fiber in her being was focused on the canvas, and getting this one right. Finally she stepped back, that was it, her best effort, everything she was distilled and spread out on canvas. Slowly she began to take note of herself, she was hungry, and her knees were screaming in protest for having been used past endurance. As she signed her name in the corner she idly wondered what day it was, and what time. When she started she always removed her watch, just so she would loose herself in the passage of time and not mark it. She stepped back from signing and looked again; it would have to do.

Slowly, methodically, she cleaned up her studio; cleaning everything because she would never use it again; as a student, she was finished. Finally everything was cleaned and stored and she turned to leave. Teressa was in her doorway, an odd look on her face; it was a mixture of sorrow and anger and joy, Ruthie had never seen such a look on anyone's face before. "What's up Walters" she asked.

Her friend tried to answer a couple of times, Ruthie could see the effort she was making; finally Teressa said "every time I think I'm getting close to your level, you raise the bar. I won the Guggenheim this year, but then I look at what you do and realize that I'm not even in the same league as you. I hate you a bit for that Camden, did you know that. I'm like Salieri to your Mozart; in my heart I know I'll always be second to you. I've been working hard this year, I've gotten help from you and from the professors; I've busted my ass, and in the process convinced myself that I'm getting close to where you are. Then I see something like this" she gestured at the just completed canvas "and I realize that you are on a totally different planet than the rest of us. God Camden, that is the most incredible work I've ever seen in my life, and I wouldn't believe any person could possibly have done it if I hadn't stood here and watched you work."

Ruthie was powerfully moved by what her friend had said, and even more by the tone in which she said it. Slowly she walked up to her best friend and said "a lot of what is up there is there because of you. You rescued me, believed in me, and helped me; even when I didn't deserve it. I would never be the artist I am, the person I am without you. And in this whole crazy 'I've got to leave' tragedy that is my life; you are the one thing I'll miss most. You are a part of me Walters, and you always will be." Ruthie hugged her friend and whispered in her ear "I'm glad you like it, because it's yours. Just a little something to remember me by and a thank you for all you've done for me."

Teressa couldn't handle it any longer, the realization that her friend would be leaving, the magnificence of the gift she was being given, the friendship that they had shared; it all came pouring out in a flood of tears. Ruthie held her friend, and cried herself, both for what she had and for what she would have to leave behind. Eventually, both girls got themselves under control; Ruthie looked at her friend and said "what do you say Walters, let's go get some ice cream and watch old movies".

"Sounds like a plan Camden" Teressa said; and together they wandered off.

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Ruthie sat back in her seat and waited to be dismissed from class. In the past couple of days she had managed to cut most of her ties to Chicago and had actually done it with a minimum of fibbing; sure she had vagued up some of the details, but the main stories had actually been true. That didn't change the fact that she felt like crap for having to say anything less than the truth in the first place. That really applied to the conversation that she had had with her parents. At first it had gone well, but then her mother had started asking specifics and had gotten angry when Ruthie tried to be vague. Ruthie gave a taught little grin at the memory, her mom had been wanting her out of Chicago for five years, and now that she was getting her way, she got upset. That's when the accusations had started flying, Ruthie was pregnant, Ruthie was pining away for someone in Glen Oak (Martin or Vincent or some anonymous guy), Ruthie had somehow gotten some criminals angry at her for her part in the robbery; it had gone on for a bit more, the accusations getting more and more ridiculous. It had finally gotten too much and Ruthie hadn't been able to hold her laughter in any longer; that more than anything had settled her mother down, but she knew she would be getting the third degree when they met next. Now, however; she had another dirty job to do, she had to tell Dr. Pearson that she wouldn't be taking the professorship even if it was offered. She sat patiently waiting for the class to end. As soon as Dr. Pearson dismissed the class, Ruthie was down by the lectern waiting to talk to him, unfortunately so were a lot of other students. She waited patiently as the others complained about eh grades that they had received or begged for more time to finish the final project, or desperately inquired about extra credit. Finally it was just her and Dr. Pearson, he looked up and a smile finally lit his face, "what can I do for you Ruth?"

"It's about that job" Ruthie replied without preamble "I don't think I should take it."

Dr. Pearson looked neither angry nor surprised "why not" he asked, his tone neutral, revealing nothing.

"It boils down to the fact that it would feel weird teaching people I've known and worked with the past four years. I know it would be uncomfortable for me, I can only imagine how they would feel."

"Especially if you had to give a best friend a bad grade?"

"That wouldn't help" she said with a slight grin.

He looked at her for a moment or two and Ruthie felt like her soul was being taken out and put under a microscope "I honestly would have been surprised if you had taken it" he said at last.

"Why" Ruthie wanted to know.

"Because despite the fact that you are extremely mature for your age, I just can't see you in a classroom when you could be painting. And that would create a lot of conflict within the faculty."

"So you're not upset?"

"I must admit I'm a bit disappointed because I won't be seeing more of your work, but no; I'm not upset."

Ruthie thought for a moment "as far as my work goes, at least you'll be able to see nearly everything I've done up to now."

"Really, how will that be possible?"

"Simple, I'm leaving most of it here, I'll take about five paintings, the rest belong to the school."

Dr. Pearson was speechless for a moment or two, something Ruthie had never seen before, finally he found his voice. "Do you have any idea what that body of work is worth in terms of a monetary figure."

"Sure, but this way, part of me will always be here, whether you use them to teach with or just hang in the halls; whatever, I will always be a part of this school. I will be giving back to the place that has given me so much."

"You're sure about this, not that I'm complaining, but I want you to be sure."

"I'm very sure about this, I couldn't think of a better legacy for a life than to be a part of this institution."

"I must say I'm completely undone, I don't have any idea what to do or say, and for me that is a unique situation. Thank you Ruth, I can't begin to say how much that will mean both to me and to the school."

"You're welcome, honestly I just wish I could do more, but this is the best I can muster."

Dr. Pearson just looked a the girl for a minute, finally he said "you are the most remarkable person I have ever had the pleasure of teaching Ruth Camden, in years to come students will be amazed that I actually had the honor to have you in my classroom."

Ruthie looked back at her mentor and friend, her eyes swimming with tears, but an impish grin on her face "normally this would be a hugging situation, but since I don't want to hurt you", then she bowed to the man, in one gesture of respect acknowledging the huge difference he had made in her life.

A wistful smile sprang up on his face and he returned the bow. With nothing left to say, the two slowly made their way to different exits, never to be student and teacher again, but simply friends.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Since her meeting with Dr. Pearson Ruthie had pretty much stopped going to class. She had finished all of her projects and reports, so there was very little need for her to be there. She had been using this time to get all of her stuff together and to crate up the paintings that she wanted to keep and get them all to a ministorage garage that she had rented. When she wasn't doing that, she was down at McGinty's helping out wherever she was needed, or just sketching. In fact she was sketching Cat when Teressa found her. "Camden, don't you ever check your messages?"

"Sure, I just haven't been around that much lately, why, what's the urgent?"

"The Dean has been trying to find you for the past two days."

Ruthie got a cold feeling, she couldn't think of what was wrong, but she was afraid that something was. "Well, just tell him to call down here, anyway what's so important?"

"It's about the speaker at graduation."

"Uh huh, what they need me to do an intro or tour guide her around the city or something like that."

"So not necessary" Teressa replied "after all, you and her are on a same name basis."

"What" Ruthie asked, not sure that she had understood her friend.

"It's you, you're the graduation speaker you big dummy" Teressa told her with a huge grin. "At least you will be when you call the Dean and tell him yes."

"You're serious; they want me to speak at graduation."

"Actually they want you to be the keynote speaker" Teressa said with a grin.

Ruthie was sure that her eyes were bugging out so much that they would fall from her head, but somehow they stayed in place. She tried to speak twice but all that came out was "kepbthalme"

Brent sidled up to a laughing Teressa and with a solemn look said "I think you broke her". That just made Teressa laugh all the harder.

So that was how she ended up standing in front of her graduating class, and their parents and the faculty, speaking about the nature of art.

"Art is not about many things, it is very simple. Art is simply showing truth, whatever that truth may be, and wherever you find it. It is not the job of the artist to interpret what he or she sees, or to alter the truth that you find, or to see it through the lens of your prejudices. You simply show the truth, and let the viewer interpret the piece for themselves. That is what we artists are, we show the world itself, in all its glory and horror, we do not judge; we simply illustrate. And when you are out in the world, do not make the mistake of thinking that only you can show the truth. In every situation on earth, the truth wears many faces, show the ones that you see, and let others show what else is there. Finally, I must admonish you all to take time to laugh, especially at yourselves. If we take ourselves too seriously, then our perspective will be lost, and the truth we show will be tainted. For an artist, there is no greater sin. So go out into the world and show the world itself, every aspect that you see in every place that you are; and if you can do that, you truly deserve to be called an artist."

She sat down, thanking God above that her knees had not been visible so no one could have seen them shaking. She mentally drifted through the rest of the ceremony, that little speech had really taken it out of her, and she just sagged in relief. She didn't mentally rejoin the proceedings until she heard Dr. Pearson speaking at the podium. "Every year we have awards for outstanding students in each of the chosen medias; however there is another award that is not always presented. This award is only bestowed when the faculty feels that a student is truly worthy. That is the 'Outstanding Student' Award. It is not given based on grades or technical proficiency or ability, the criteria is heart. It goes to the student who not only worries about him or herself, but worries and cares about all in the class. It goes to the student who will give up some glory so that others can succeed. It goes to the student who exemplifies all that we as people can hope to be. It is my honor to present this award to Miss Ruth Camden" he turned to look at her with a twinkle in his eyes "and Ruth, this is a hugging situation".

She could barely see through the tears in her eyes, she glanced in the direction of her parents, and the McGinty's crew that had made it there, but mostly her attention was focused on her friend and mentor. She slowly approached and soon found herself on the receiving end of a bear hug that a grizzly would have been proud of. He handed her a plaque and certificate, but they were secondary to the pride that she could see in his eyes "thank you, for everything" she said, but it was enough.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

The graduation party was in full swing, but it was bittersweet. Everyone was happy for Ruthie, for what she had achieved and the person that she was. But most everyone knew that this was the last time that they would see her, because she would be leaving Chicago and maybe never returning. She had limited herself to one farewell Oberon Ale (although from the looks she got from her parents, one was one too many), and tried her best to say goodbye to everyone. It was tough to do, especially when she was trying to let them know how much they had all meant to her. She had said her goodbyes to everyone except Teressa, mostly because she was getting up the courage that she needed to leave her best friend. Steeling herself, she walked over to the quite corner that Teressa had been in most of the party.

The two friends looked at each other, neither knowing how to start. Finally after a moment or two of stammering Ruthie said the most painful and obvious thing she could "I will never have another friend like you Teressa. I know I'll be friends with other people, but never like I am with you. No one could ever take the place of what you mean to me." As soon as she got it out, the tears started flowing from both girls. They just stood there, holding each other and commiserating each other on what they were about to loose.

Finally Teressa got herself under control enough to say "you just stole my lines Camden you thief".

Ruthie just looked at her friend for a second, a stunned expression on her face, then just as hard as she had been crying, she was laughing. This was what she loved about Teressa, the ability to make her smile, even when she didn't want to.

"This isn't goodbye Camden; this is 'see ya later', because I hear that parts of California are actually nice."

"Are you serious" Ruthie asked, realizing what her friend was saying.

"Hell yes, you think I'm gonna let something like this keep us apart, get ready for a roommate as soon as I graduate, capishe."

"Well thanks for letting me decide there Walters."

"Well, you could always change the locks before I get there."

"Nah, where else could I find someone capable of putting up with my crap."

"No where else kid, I'm unique."

"Well, that's one way of putting it."

"True, so 'see ya later Camden'"

"See ya later Walters" Ruthie answered. She then walked over to Gary and whispered something in his ear. Gary shot her a look, then nodded and stood up on the little stage area. "Excuse me everyone, but our honoree has something she's like to say to us all."

Ruthie got up and looked into the eyes of her friends and family "I was looking for a way to thank you all for what you have given me this last year. But all I could think of were these. She started passing out framed sketches of each of the McGinty's staff; all of them caught in moments of humor and humanity. "And finally, so that we never forget each other" and she held up a sketch with everyone standing around the bar, Gary hugging Toni, Tony and George arguing while Abby laughed at them both. Crumb and Brent mixing drinks and Cat, in all his glory, lying in the center of the bar while Teressa stroked his back. Ruthie handed this to Gary and said "this is the best thank you I could come up with."

"And it's the best 'thank you' I've ever gotten" then he looked at his wife and said "well maybe not the best, but it's certainly in the top five. Then he sat the sketch down and stood so everyone could see him "since we're giving out presents, it is customary to give the graduate a little something, RC, over here please."

Ruthie came up to him, looking a little perplexed, what was Gary up to. "We all got together and thought you could use this" he pulled his hand out of his pocket and handed her a set of car keys.

Ruthie looked at her hand, then at Gary, then back at her hand again "what" she finally managed.

"Come on kid" Toni said "your chariot awaits.

They led her outside where she saw a Chevy Suburban parked right by the door. "This is mine" she asked, totally blown away.

"Yeah, it's yours kid" Crumb answered "we thought you should go home in style."

"Besides, it has all your stuff in it" Gary said with a smile.

"Plus a couple of extras" added Marissa.

"Now go make a difference" Teressa finished.

Ruthie turned to look at them all "I'll never forget you guys" she said, then it was group hug time in front of McGinty's. Slowly, painfully, she finally disengaged herself from her friends, people who were as close to her as her family. She got into her new car, started it up and leaned out the window "I love you all" she said. Then with tears in her eyes, she left Chicago, the place she thought of as her home and headed west, into the unknown future.

Goodbye to you, goodbye to everything that I knew 

you were the one thing that I loved, the one thing that I tried to hold on to.

Michelle Branch

* * *

A/N Just one more chapter to go. I'd like to take this time to thank everyone that has read my little story. I would especially like to thank those people that have taken the time to respond to this story, I appreciate your feedback and comentary. It has made writing this a much easier task than it could have been. There is one more story to go in this series, but I'm not sure if I'll write it immediately or take a side trip into the Buffyverse again. But do not despair, I shall return, maybe sooner, maybe later, but I'm not going anywhere. Thanks again to everyone for letting a bit of me into your lives, if only for a little bit. 

POE1911


	27. The End of the Begining

THE LEGACY – EPILOGUE

Ruthie was awake, and she didn't know why. She had gotten to bed late last night so she shouldn't be awake yet. Her eyes remaining firmly closed, she focused her efforts on relaxing and going back to sleep. She was almost there when she heard "YAP".

Her eyes shot open, 'what the heck was that' she thought.

'A dog' another part of her brain answered.

'Well duh' the first part thought back, but this place has a no pets policy'.

'Obviously someone is bending the rules' the other part of her brain supplied.

"YAP"

There it was again. 'Isn't someone gonna shut the thing up, people are trying to sleep' Ruthie thought. But for her, sleep was a thing of the past, at least for today. Reluctantly she sat up in bed and looked out the window at downtown Denver. She had gone to Denver on a whim. She was supposed to head straight down Interstate 80, but she had seen the sign and decided that she had never been to Denver, so why not take the opportunity. She had arrived at about 5:30 in the afternoon (thank God for a morning graduation) and kind of wandered into the heart of the city. She was intrigued by the place, parts of it reminded her of Chicago, but there were some very unique elements here, plus some of the bars looked cool. She had looked around for somewhere to stay and found the Black Mountain Hotel. She liked the place; it was quaint and quiet, almost as if it had been placed there from another time. She had put her essentials in room 1611 and gone out. She had almost immediately found a great Mexican place called Oerta's right down the street, and a neat bar called Bash Riprock's near there as well. She only had one beer, but she had soaked in the ambience and had liked what she had felt. She had wandered back to the hotel and settled in for what was to have been a long relaxing sleep, that is until someone let a noisemaker loose in the hall. "YAP" speak of the devil.

'Crap, it sounds like its right outside my door, everyone's gonna think it's mine'.

"YAP"

Very reluctantly Ruthie climbed out of bed and staggered in the direction of the door. She opened it a crack and looked out; it was right in front of her door. It was indeed a dog, not a little mop dog, but one that looked like Benji. "Shoo, go home" Ruthie said, but the dog just wagged at her. 'I don't need this, even if it is cute' Ruthie thought. She opened the door wider to see if there was anyone else stirring on the floor. As soon as her door was open wide enough, the dog darted into her room. 'Great' Ruthie thought 'now it's gonna pee on everything and housekeeping well string me up'. She tried to follow the dog's progress in her room but gave it up. The little mongrel was darting here and there at roughly the speed of light. It was like trying to follow a quark. She glanced back to her open door and noticed something, the dog wasn't the only thing outside her room, a newspaper was there as well.

'No way is this happening' Ruthie thought 'this just isn't possible'. Slowly, reluctantly she reached down and picked up the paper. It was the Denver Post; the Denver Post for May 27th. She checked her watch just to make sure; yep, today was the 26th. Then the realization actually hit her, she was standing there with tomorrows Denver Post. She almost dropped it and closed the door, there was no way she'd survive what Gary had to put up with, but she didn't drop it. She stepped back into her room and closed the door, already perusing the paper. And in that simple act everything changed, both in her life and in her mind. Everything that she had thought was going wrong with her life didn't matter anymore, because now she knew what she would be doing with her life. She was already marking items that needed her attention while the dog just sat on the bed and looked at her, a curious expression on his face. While she was doing this she picked up the phone and dialed automatically.

"Camden Residence"

"Hi mom, it's Ruthie"

"Are you OK honey?"

"Yeah mom, I'm in Denver."

"Just a little side trip?"

"At first, but something just fell into my lap and I'm gonna be here a while."

"How long do you think?"

Ruthie looked at the dog and the paper and thought for a moment. "I'd have to say for the rest of my life mom." Then she winced, waiting for the reply.

After she got off the phone, she looked back at the paper and the dog. At the moment she wasn't sure if she should be petting the dog or chasing it around trying to skin it. At that moment she realized that there had been a purpose for everything that she had gone through. There was no way she would have willingly left Chicago, even if she had been told that she was needed here in Denver. And so she had been forced out. Forced to come to the place where she was needed, forced to come to the place that now was, andforever morewould be, her home.

THE END


End file.
